


Meant to Be

by Fangirl0207



Category: One Piece
Genre: AU, Androids, Combat Android Sanji, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Single father Zoro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2018-12-22 11:27:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11966406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl0207/pseuds/Fangirl0207
Summary: Androids are machines, mere tools created by humans to perform all the difficult or troublesome tasks. They're not supposed to feel or fall in love. They're not supposed to make Zoro feels like he wants to have them in all possible ways. But then comes Sanji, and Zoro finds himself standing against the world just for the sake of a machine.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Zoro studies the features of the female figure impaled on Sandai Kitetsu; fair skin, red lips, eyes as blue as the sky on a clear day. Her figure is tall and slender, with curves accentuated by form fitting clothes. There’s a faint scent of strawberry-scented shampoo from her long, elegantly-curling blonde hair. No matter how hard he looks at her, there’s nothing about her features that sets her apart from a female human. If it isn’t for the lack of blood flowing out her open wound, Zoro might even believe that he has killed a woman instead of an android.

Slowly, he pulls out Sandai Kitetsu. The feminine figure limply falls onto the ground with an abnormally loud ‘thud’, a testament to the combined weight of her components, yet another evidence that she’s not, in fact, human at all. During his early years of learning the way of the swords, he was taught not to take for granted the lives of others standing by the edge of his blade. Each life ended by his sword is equivalent to another sinful burden on his shoulders, the summation of which he has to answer for in his afterlife. Yet, as he observes the android which has a terrifyingly similar appearance to that of a human, he wonders if he has to answer to her as well.

Of course not, his common sense hotly denies, she’s not human.

Zoro agrees with his common sense, and ignores the small protesting voice in the back of his mind. He tears his gaze away from the female android, and looks about in hopes of seeing his partner. The dark hallway is strewn with remains of androids, but Zoro can’t see Tashigi amongst them. Just as he’s about to go off in a randomly chosen direction to look for her, a voice suddenly calls out his name. Turning his attention to the source of that call, he sees Tashigi poking her head out of a room on the end of the hallway, hand motioning for Zoro to come over.

Glad knowing that he isn’t lost, he jogs towards her, and then finds himself entering a huge, brightly-lit room, with rows of metallic, rectangular containers neatly lined up one after another. Each of these containers is numbered from one to twenty, and then arranged sequentially starting from the far corner of the room. Zoro doesn’t need to look into those containers to know that they’ve found what they’re looking for. Tashigi seems to be of the same mind as well, for without saying anything, she takes out her phone to contact their boss.

“We found them,” Tashigi says to the person on the other end of the line, “Seize this place.” And with that, she ends the call. “Who would have thought, huh?” she turns her attention to Zoro, “That a tax consultants’ office would be hiding something like this?”

Zoro absently hums in agreement as he looks about the room, checking to see if there’s anything out of place. When Tashigi begins walking around the perimeter of the room with eyes closely observing each container, Zoro follows her close behind. “Number three, five, and eleven have gone missing,” she suddenly comments, “Someone must have bought them before we arrived.” Her voice betrays a tone of worry; no doubt she’s imagining all the horrible stuff that could happen once those buyers activate the combat androids that they have bought.

Zoro himself admits that those combat androids are bothersome to deal with, but he doesn’t really share her apprehension. Even though he’s not clear on the details of their workings, he knows that the informants of the bureau will track down those buyers in record time. They’ll be able to get to them before any major damage or loss can be inflicted on anyone.

Minutes later, Zoro hears a multitude of footsteps approaching the room they’re in. Even though he knows whose footsteps those belong to, he still places a hand on the hilt of his sword, telling himself that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

“Yo, you two brats alright?” Smoker says as he enters the room, with the whole Android Protection Bureau force trailing behind him. Those other agents quickly spread and fill the room, taking pictures, gathering evidences, and checking the condition of the containers.

“Yes, sir,” Zoro and Tashigi reply at the same time.

“Good,” Smoker says as he lights up his cigarette, “You two did a great job, you can step back now. I’ll take it from here.” And with that, he turns his attention to the other agents in the room.

“I’ll be staying here for a while,” Tashigi informs Zoro, “I need to know what we should do about those missing androids. Feel free to go ahead, Zoro.”

Zoro takes one quick glance around the room, before he decides that there’s really nothing else for him to do there. It’s not like he can help the other agents with the methodical tasks, and it’s not like he’s keen on talking about those missing androids with Smoker either. So he bids Tashigi farewell, before he exits the storage room, and makes his way back home.

XXX

By the time he reaches his apartment, the sun is slightly peering over the skyline, casting the daybreak light on the side of Zoro’s face as he walks into the building. With a plastic bag filled with convenience store food in one hand, and his swords case in another, he steadily climbs up the stairs to the fourth floor. Occasionally, he comes across some of the neighbors who are up and about to go to work or exercise. He doesn’t acknowledge any one of them, but he can feel their curious glances as he walks on. He’s tempted to tell them to mind their own business, but then he decides that the effort is not going to be worth it. Rumors and gossips are going to spread no matter what, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.

Zoro unlocks his door and steps inside his apartment. The place is still dark, with only a faint amount of sunlight shining through the glass door leading to the balcony. He places his swords case on the sofa and the plastic bag filled with convenience store food on the dining table, before he sets out to prepare himself a cup of coffee. As he mechanically performs the task, his mind wanders to the mental checklist of the chores he has yet to perform; laundry, clean the bathroom, wash the dishes, and make some time for Yuu.

The thought of his daughter prompts Zoro to look over his shoulder at the door to her room. He can’t help but to wonder how long has it been since he last actually spent time with her. He always told her that he would make the time, but something always comes up in the last minute. It really can’t be helped; he’s only starting in the bureau, so he can’t ask for too much free time, and being a single father is not an acceptable excuse. Despite that, it doesn’t stop Yuu from feeling disappointed, and it doesn’t stop him from feeling like he’s failing as a father. These days, Yuu is spending more time with Robin as compared to him. Zoro wouldn’t be surprised if she grows up thinking that Robin is her mother.

Zoro makes a mental note to pick her up from Robin’s place as soon as he catches some rest. Hopefully, nothing will come up at work, though that could be just wishful thinking.

Something is always happening there, and being one of the very few field agents in there, Zoro’s presence is constantly needed as well. Zoro doesn’t hate his work. In fact, he considers himself to be fortunate to be able to work a job where he can put his swords skill to good use. Their compensation for long hours is pretty neat too. Still, the bureau is clearly undermanned; there are just too many cases to investigate. Recruiting more field agents is a long overdue agenda. The problem with that is that there aren’t many people who are willing to risk their life like Zoro.

Regulating the use and production of combat android is a dangerous job. As a field agent, Zoro’s main responsibility is to respond to reports of combat android being misused to cause harm, or to investigate manufacturers producing and distributing combat androids without license from the government. Whenever Zoro sets out to do either one, more often than not, a fight is bound to occur. Zoro has lost count the number of times he has skirted with death. It’s understandable why people in general shy away from this kind of occupation.

After several hours of sleep, Zoro wakes up to the sound of his alarm ringing. Before going to bed, he set it to ring at one n the afternoon, right at the time when Yuu’s kindergarten class is supposed to be over. Zoro plans on immediately getting up and rushing over to Robin’s place to pick Yuu up so that he can spend the evening with her. However, as he grabs his phone, he realizes that it’s not the alarm that’s ringing.

The ringing phone lights up with the screen showing a familiar caller’s ID; Ace Portgas. Zoro prays that Ace is only asking him to hang out during the weekend as he answers the call.

“Zoro! The vice-pres is calling for a meeting in one hour,” Ace’s says as soon as the line connects. “Get ready, I’ll bet at your place in five, yeah?” However, before Zoro can reply to that, Ace hung up already.

Zoro can only groan as he puts away his phone. So much for spending time with Yuu.

XXX

Ace raps on his door five minutes later, and together they drive to the bureau for the meeting. Since they both work in the same office and live in the same apartment building, going to work together like this is a pretty ordinary occurrence. Ace is Zoro’s senior by three years. As someone who suffers from narcolepsy, he’s not allowed to drive, so whenever they need to go to the bureau, it’s always Zoro driving the car.

“Hey, Zoro, do you know?” Ace asks as he looks at the swordsman, “Seems like the storage place you busted last night has connection with the big fish that Shanks has been sniffing around for.”

Zoro glances at Ace, “Really?” he asks, prompting the older man to elaborate.

“Yeah. Marco won’t tell me much about the details, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to organize a raid pretty soon. You’ve never been in a raid, have you?” When Zoro confirms that with a grunt, Ace grins and chuckles, “I hope you get chosen, bro. Raid’s like the most exciting mission you’ll ever get.”

Zoro has heard about it from Ace and Tashigi a couple of times. Raid missions don’t happen that often; even Ace has only taken part in one so far. In order to raid a lab or manufacturing plant, enough evidence needs to be accumulated first, and then brought to the ministry for approval. Once the raid is approved, the creams of the crops in the Android Protection Bureau are chosen to participate in the raid mission. It’s supposed to be really dangerous, but Ace often talks about it like it’s some sort of extreme sport event.

They arrived at the bureau shortly after, and immediately make their way to the meeting room. Once inside, they find the faces of familiar fellow field agents already sitting and waiting in there. Zoro doesn’t really mingle with them, so the only face he can recognize is Tashigi’s.

“Did you manage to get some sleep?” Tashigi asks as soon as Zoro sits down next to her.

“Yeah, a couple of hours,” Zoro says as he glances at his watch. “Four hours, to be exact. You?”

“I got none,” Tashigi says as she raises her tall cup of coffee, “I’ve still got pending cases on my desks. I need to start on them immediately.”

Zoro can’t help but to frown at that. Even though he doesn’t think much of Tashigi, she’s still a fellow field agent whose ability he genuinely respects. Her sword forms are neat and beautiful, her cuts precise and graceful. “You shouldn’t push yourself too much.”

“I know,” Tashigi says with a sigh, “But there’s just so much to be done.” She then proceeds to talk about all the cases that she has yet to finish, and how difficult it is to gather information and evidences. If Zoro talks to the other filed agents, he’s pretty sure that they’re going to talk about the same stuffs.

It’s not like Zoro doesn’t have cases piling up on his desk. In fact, out of all the field agents in the bureau, Zoro’s desk is probably winning the case-files-stacking competition. But there’s just too much to do and Zoro’s not one who can handle multiple cases at the same time. The best he can do is to tackle the cases one file at a time, and hope that the pile will stop growing one of these days.

Shortly after, the vice president of the bureau, Marco, enters the room, and the meeting shortly begins. Turns out, it’s just another weekly update meeting where each agent reports about the cases they’re working on. After each of them gets a turn, Marco proceeds to inform them about the latest development in combat android technology, and instructs them on how to deal with it.

When the meeting’s over, agents immediately rise and file out of the room for lunch. Ace is about to drag Zoro to a ramen shop nearby when Marco stops them.

“Zoro, Stay back, I need to talk with you.”

Zoro and Ace shares a curious glance, before Ace shrugs and turns to ask Marco, “What are you two going to talk about? It’s not going to be about me, is it?” he asks with a mischievous grin.

“Don’t flatter yourself too much kid,” Marco says as he ruffles Ace’s hair. “Go on ahead. This might take a while.”

Ace looks curious and confused, but he decides that there’s no arguing with Marco when he’s talking as the vice-president of the bureau. So with another glance at Zoro, Ace turns around and walks out of the room, leaving Zoro and Marco behind.

Zoro turns to face the vice-president, wondering what this is all about. Immediately, he becomes hyper conscious about the growing stack on his desk, and wonders if Marco’s going to give him a stern lecture about that.

“Sit down,” Marco tells him as he motions to one of the chairs near the front row. Zoro complies, and after he settles down, Marco begins, “So… here’s the thing…” he begins, and for some reason, he sounds uncharacteristically hesitant.

For a brief moment, the thought about being fired crossed his mind, but he quickly pushed it away because even though he works like a goddamn turtle in a rabbit’s race, he is undoubtedly one of the better agents in the bureau; seriously, how many people in here can wield three swords and actually cut through fucking steel?

“I’m sure you’re aware how undermanned this bureau is?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

Marco folds his arms as he continues, “the pres talked about it with the minister a few weeks ago, see, and… the minister finally decided to send in some extra hands.” Marco pauses, his gaze gauging Zoro for a moment, which is rather unnerving to be fairly honest. “This guy… He came in yesterday, and he’s… a bit unconventional.”

“Unconventional.” Zoro repeats the word in confusion, because that’s a strange word to use when describing someone.

Marco nods, “he’s a combat android.”

If it was anyone else other than Marco telling him this, then Zoro would have laughed. Using a combat android to solve combat androids problem is like fighting fire with fire; it’s just stupid and illogical and something is bound to go wrong – horribly wrong even. What kind of idiot would even suggest something like that?

Observing the still-impassive look on Zoro’s face, Marco continues, “He’s not just any combat android though. He’s a state-of-the-art combat android, which means that he’s not only powerful and intelligent, but dangerous too. And he’s going to work here with us in the bureau.”

Marco pulls out a file and hands it over to Zoro.

The word ‘Top Secret’ is stamped on it, red and threatening. Zoro flips open the cover to see the first page. The first thing he noticed is a passport size picture of the android’s face; bright blue eyes, shaggy blonde hair that covers his right eye, black goatee on his chin – typical Caucasian features, except for the ridiculously curling eyebrow that amusingly resembles a dartboard.

Zoro reads through the first page, noting his name, codename, and designation. “Unit 3V, codename Sanji… Designation… Reconnaissance.” The android is 180 cm tall and weighs 160 kg. He’s first activated on the second of March.

As Zoro reads through the biodata, Marco continues to explain, “Something isn’t right about the whole deal. Why would they send in a state-of-the-art android here out of all the places?”

Zoro understands where that suspicion is coming from. Even though the Android Protection bureau plays an important role in keeping combat androids in close check, their annual budget actually ranks the lowest among all other government agencies. The government just doesn’t regard them highly enough to warrant this kind of ‘gift’. Why didn’t they send this android to the army or the Intel bureau instead?

“Right now, my boys are trying to figure out the answer to that question. But for now, all we can do is to keep an eye open for him.”

“And you want me to do that?”

Marco nods, “You’re most suited for the task, or so Shanks told me. He said something about you and the android being similar in some ways. He thinks you’ll get along really well with him.”

Zoro can imagine the president of the bureau saying that with a stupid grin on his face, totally oblivious to the dangers that this android may pose on them. How did he get chosen to be the president again? Okay, it’s not like Shanks is a bad president or anything; it’s just that he doesn’t take things seriously enough most of the time. A potentially murderous android is walking among them, and he thinks that Zoro will get along with him? Shanks might as well ask them to get married for all the consideration he puts into this situation.

With a small sigh, Zoro asks, “So what do I have to do with this android?”

“I’m assigning him a few small cases. He’ll be in the lead, but you’ll be there with him to make sure he doesn’t cause any problem. Follow him, watch him closely, and if he ever makes a wrong move, don’t hesitate to interfere. Got that?”

Zoro nods in reply.

“If you don’t have any more question, then follow me. I’ll introduce you to him right now so you two can start working.” Marco gathers his files and leads the way out. However, just as he opens the door, he suddenly stops, as if just remembering something important, “Right, there’s something else that I have to tell you,” he says as he turns to face Zoro again. “The minister told me that if this android ever goes out of control, then tell him to ‘execute command All Blue’.”

“Execute command All Blue?”

Marco nods in confirmation, “It’s a force shut-down command. He’s supposed to stop moving if you tell him that. Still, they told us not to use the command unless absolutely necessary.”

“Why not?”

“They said force shut-down can harm the android’s system, and repairing him will take a lot of time and money.”

“I see,” Zoro says with a nod. That’s handy to know, but Zoro doesn’t think he’ll be using it at all. He’s pretty sure that all he needs is his swords to stop that android.

“… don’t forget that command, it can probably save your life,” Marco tells him after a short pause, before he proceeds to walk onward.

XXX

The android is waiting for them as they enter the interrogation room. Zoro wonders why he’s waiting in there when there’s a bunch of better places to wait in the bureau, but decides that asking that question isn’t that important. As they walk in, the android stands up and turns towards them, his clear blue eye coldly regarding Zoro for a moment.

Immediately, Zoro remembers the female android that was impaled on his sword just the other night. Her eyes and this android’s are the same shade of blue. Involuntarily, the alarm in his head rings, warning him to be careful. Rationally speaking, this android has yet to show any sign of hostility, so there’s no reason to be so wary, yet Zoro finds the fingers of his left hand twitching for his sword.

“Sanji, let me introduce you to Roronoa Zoro,” Marco says to the android. “He’s a senior agent here who will be watching over you during your probation period. Do get along with him.”

“Oh, really? Nice to meet you… Sir Roronoa?” Sanji inquires as he offers his hand for a handshake.

“Zoro,” he replies as he shakes the android’s hand, “Just call me Zoro.”

“Ja, take good care of Sanji, okay?” Marco says as he pats Zoro on the shoulder, “I’ll leave you guys for now. Lemme know if you need anything.” And with that, Marco turns around and leaves the room.

For a moment, neither of them says anything. Zoro silently studies the android; from the features of his face, his body shape, the three piece suit he’s wearing, to his well-polished shoes. For someone that weighs more than twice the average human’s weight, Sanji looks so slender it borders on skinny. If he was human, Zoro wouldn’t even think of him as a threat.

“You look tense,” Sanji suddenly comments, nearly making Zoro jumps for the swords hanging from his waist.

Zoro returns his gaze to meet Sanji’s. “I’m not,” he denies, a bit too defensively perhaps.

Sanji smirks, seemingly amused. The cocky look on his face immediately rubs Zoro the wrong way. “You don’t have to be scared of me, you know. I don’t bite at all.”

“I am not scared,” Zoro insists, though it seems like he’s trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

“How much do you know about me anyway?” Sanji asks as he tilts his head questioningly, the condescending and oh-so-mighty smirk still there on his face; as if challenging Zoro to a fight.

“I know enough,” Zoro says after a short pause.

“I see…” Sanji replies, the smile fading from his face. For a quiet moment, he regards Zoro with his cold eye. He stands there before Zoro with a lax pose, looking as harmless as any ordinary human. Yet the alarm in Zoro’s head is ringing louder and louder with each passing second. Zoro doesn’t like that look; it reminds him too much of the few split seconds before a combat android tries to maim him.  

Every muscle in Zoro’s body tenses; ready to respond to any form of assault. His left hand grips Wado’s hilt firmly, ready to draw it out and cut down Sanji at the slightest sign. Any moment now, he thinks to himself as he enters that combat headspace where everything is narrowed down to only him and his opponent.

“Pft,” Sanji coughs as he averts his gaze away, before he begins giggling, and then laughing.

It takes a moment for Zoro to climb out of that headspace and realizes that Sanji is fucking laughing at him. “What the hell is so funny?!” Zoro growls, hand still on Wado. Zoro has no idea what to make of the situation; the alarm in his head has stopped ringing, but a small part of him still wants to remain wary of this android.

“Because you look like you’re gonna piss yourself,” Sanji tells him, still laughing. “You should see the look on your face. You’re so fucking tense.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Zoro hotly denies, “And I look fucking tense because I thought you were going to pick a fight with me, you fucking shitty android! Stop laughing!”

“It’s just so funny,” Sanji explains as his laughter dies down to mere giggles, his tone now friendlier and easier, “What the heck did Marco tell you anyway? That I eat human’s brain or something?” when Zoro refuses to reply to that question, Sanji continues, “Listen, I’m not dangerous, alright? Sure, I’m advanced beyond your imagination, but that doesn’t mean I kill people for shits and giggles. You hear me?”

Zoro snorts, “As if I’m going to trust a word you’re saying.”

“Well, whether you want to trust me or not, that’s really up to you,” Sanji says with a light shrug, “Just relax a bit, okay? You look so tense you might actually shit in your pants.”

“Shut up, dartbrows!” Zoro snaps, before he turns around and angrily strides out of the room.

“Hey, my eyebrows are amazing, you green-haired neanderthal,” Sanji retorts as he catches up with Zoro.

“Amazing my ass! Those eyebrows are going to be the bureau’s laughing stock for the next three months.”

“You’re just jealous because the ladies dig this look.”

“La- The fuck? You’re so fucking full of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Only because it’s true.”

Zoro internally groans as he fights down the urge to sock this guy in the face. “Whatever, let’s just… Let’s just get to work.”


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Zoro stands outside the workshop garage with both hands in his pocket as he watches Sanji inspect the place. The owner of the workshop, a tanned, well-built middle aged man with a permanent scowl on his face, anxiously follows Sanji around as he fumbles to answer Sanji’s questions. Looking around the garage, there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary here; it looks just like any other android repair workshop in the city. There are broken parts and work tools messily strewn about the place, with a soldering station on the left side of the entrance. On the far end of the room, there’s a metallic lounge chair that most people in the android business refers to as the Android Programming Altercation chair – a machine used to plug into androids to alter their programming. The Android Programming Altercation chair is connected to the computer which is located on the right side of the entrance.

“I’m telling you, I’m not doing any shady business here,” the man insists as Sanji turns his attention to the computer and begins booting it up. “Please stop messing around with my work.”

Even if he says that, there’s still the fact that he ordered a combat android component from an illegal manufacturer which was busted recently. The order was made two months ago; it’s probably a bit late to do the investigation now. Zoro is positive that they won’t come up with any concrete evidence to close down this workshop for illegal android modification.

After going through the files in the computer, Sanji then begins asking the owner about that particular purchase which led them here in the first place. Frustratingly, the owner claims ignorance and insists that there must be some sort of mistake. Zoro and Sanji both left afterwards with empty hands.

“Fucking lying bastard,” Sanji hisses angrily the moment they settle into Zoro’s car.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” Zoro tells him, “There wasn’t any decisive evidence. He was careful.”

“He may be careful, but he’s not perfect. There must be something he’s forgetting.”

Zoro fights down the urge to roll his eyes. There aren’t that many newbies in the bureau, but in the rare instances when Shanks manage to find them a new recruit, that person more often than not always exhibits this kind of excessive optimism where they think they can solve all the cases coming their way. Having optimism is good, but then things just don’t always work out for the best. Sometimes, a case goes cold, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Just as Zoro’s about to give Sanji a piece of his mind, his phone suddenly rings, and this time, it’s the alarm that he has set earlier to wake him up the moment Yuu’s kindergarten class ends. Fucking shit, he curses to himself, this whole deal with Sanji almost makes him forget about his plan on seeing Yuu. Originally, he had planned on ditching today’s work just to spend time with her, but with Ace dragging him to the meeting and then Marco shoving this android onto him, there seems to be no fucking way he can spend time with Yuu today.

“What was that?” Sanji asks after Zoro silenced the alarm.

“Nothing,” Zoro replies, a bit gruffly perhaps.

Zoro last saw his daughter the day before he went on that busting mission with Tashigi, so approximately two days ago. Still, it feels like he hasn’t seen her in a week. He misses her, and there’s no doubt she misses him too. After Kuina passed away, this is the way they have been living; distant and always yearning for the other. Zoro wonders if Yuu will one day starts to think that he’s abandoning her or something.

The thought makes him shudder, and he immediately makes a mental note to at least call her later when Robin has picked her up. Speaking of Robin, Zoro really owes her a bunch for always taking care of Yuu. She always told him that it doesn’t bother her, since she’s leading a pretty slow-paced life as writer, but then Zoro knows that he has to repay her somehow.

“You look troubled,” Sanji suddenly comment. “Is there something wrong?”

“I told you, it’s nothing,” Zoro insists as he turns the ignition key. “Just mind your own business.”

“Look shithead, I’m just trying to be nice,” Sanji quickly replies, irritation clear in his voice, “We’ll be working together for some time, so the least you can do is to stop treating me like an enemy.”

Zoro once again remembers what Marco told him about Shanks wanting them to get along, but then that just makes him want to push Sanji away even further. Still, Sanji has a point. They’ll be working together from now on, and things may get unnecessarily awkward and complicated if they don’t communicate effectively with one another.

For a while, Zoro doesn’t say anything as he backs his car out of the parking space. As soon as he gets his car out safely, he glances at Sanji, who’s looking at him expectantly, before saying, “I haven’t seen my daughter in a while. Work’s been keeping me away.”

“You have a daughter? How old is she?” Sanji asks, sounding interested.

“Five,” Zoro replies as he drives away, “Six this year. Her birthday’s in three months.”

“What’s her name?”

“Yuu.”

“Yuu for excellence?” Sanji inquires, trying to guess the meaning behind that name.

“Yuu for bravery,” Zoro corrects.

“That’s a nice name,” Sanji says with a nod. For a while, he doesn’t say anything as they continue driving back to the bureau. However, after a minute or two, Sanji suddenly speaks up, “Let’s go see her now.” When Zoro glances at him with an incredulous look on his face, Sanji continues to explain, “There’s nothing else we can do about this case, and I can start the next one tonight. I don’t see any problem with taking a little detour.”

Zoro snorts, “Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not patronizing you,” Sanji argues, a hint of irritation in his voice, “I’m just being considerate.”

“Well, I don’t need your consideration,” Zoro snaps at him.

“Bastard, if you think your pride is more important than seeing your daughter, then fine! Do whatever the fuck you want!”

This has nothing to do with pride; those words are on the tip of Zoro’s tongue, yet the niggling suspicion that Sanji might be right holds back those words. Zoro hates being patronized or pitied, and well… it does have a lot to do with his manly pride. He’s Roronoa fucking Zoro, he can handle his own shit just fine, and he most definitely doesn’t need this shitty android’s consideration. But well… To be painfully honest, he’s pretty fucking desperate to see Yuu, because hell, the last thing he wants to be is the father who’s never there. Zoro grew up without parents, so he knew what it felt like to be alone. When Yuu was born, he vowed he would never let her feel that loneliness that he grew up with. At first, it’s easy to stick to that vow with Kuina around, but now that she’s gone…

“Tch, fine,” Zoro finally says after a long consideration, “But you’re not allowed to touch my daughter, you hear me?”

Sanji snorts in return, “Please, I’m prince charming, your daughter will be all over me.”

It takes them longer than necessary to get there because at first Sanji thought Zoro knows where he is going. After they drive around the same block twice, Sanji finally learns that Zoro can’t be trusted with directions. Thankfully, Sanji has a map data stored in his memory, so they’re finally able to make it to Robin’s place after much arguing and name calling.

Robin owns a small house in the residential area of the city. It’s a neat two-story place with a front lawn and a garden, carefully tended by Robin herself. Zoro parks the car by the curb, before he and Sanji makes their way through the front wooden gate and up to her front door. Robin opens the door shortly after Zoro rings the bell.

“My, my, Zoro-san, what a surprise,” Robin says with a pleased look on her face.

“Hey Robin,” Zoro simply greets, “Is Yuu inside?”

Robin nods, “we were just going to bake some cookies. Come on in.” she then notices Sanji standing behind Zoro and promptly asks, “Who is this?”

Zoro opens his mouth to reply, but then Sanji beats him to it, “Sanji at your service, mademoiselle,” he says with a small bow. “My lady, I simply would like to apologize. If this neanderthal has told me that such a beautiful goddess lives in this house, I would have brought an offering with me. But alas, I come here unprepared. You have to forgive me for that.”

Zoro stares at Sanji in disbelief. Just what the fuck?

Robin chuckles in amusement, “It’s alright, Sanji-san. My name’s Robin, a pleasure to meet you.”

“Robin? Such a lovely name for such a wondrous goddess such as yourself. Pray forgive me for intruding –“

“Quit it, dartbrow, you’re fucking annoying,” Zoro snaps at his companion. Just what the fuck anyway? Why is he talking like that to Robin? It’s so different from when he’s talking to Zoro that it’s fucking annoying. Not to mention, creepy.

Sanji immediately glares at him, “Idiot, show some fucking respect to a woman!”

Respect? More like desperate flirting, in Zoro’s honest opinion. Wait, is that what Sanji’s doing? Flirting? Are androids supposed to do that? He tries to sift through everything he knows about androids, but for the love of god, he never heard anything about androids flirting. Zoro suspects that this might have something to do with whatever advance technology that they used to make Sanji, but it’s still disturbing nonetheless.

“You’re so fucking unbelievable,” Zoro murmurs, before he decides to walk into the house to see his daughter.

As soon as he walks into the living room, he finds Yuu padding towards him, wearing a small pink apron with cookie cutters in both her hands. “Papa?” the short, adorable, little girl’s eyes widen when she sees Zoro. Without a second thought, she quickly runs up to him, and proceeds to glomps his leg, “Papa!”

“Yuu,” Zoro smiles as he crouches down to pat her head, “How are you doing? Did you miss me?” he then proceeds to pick her up in his arms.

“Yeah! I miss papa very much!” Yuu enthusiastically claims as she throws her tiny hands up in the air.

Zoro then asks her to recount her day, and she proceeds to ramble on about the things she did in kindergarten as they sat down on the sofa. Meanwhile, Robin and Sanji walks into the kitchen, with Sanji continuing his hopeless flirting, and Robin preparing tea.

“Then I hit him in the face because he’s really mean, but then Yamada-sensei got mad and then told me to apologize, but then I told her that I didn’t want to because he was mean, but she made me do it anyway!” the little girl then pouts n her father’s lap, “Yamada-sensei likes him better than me.”

“That’s not true, I’m sure Yamada-sensei just wants you to get along with Kei,” Zoro tells his daughter.

Yuu looks at him with her wide eyes, “I don’t want to get along with Kei. He threw the ball at me!”

“Isn’t it because he wants to play with you?”

“I don’t want to play with him, Kei is stupid!” she then folds her arms stubbornly, “Stupid Kei.”

At that moment Sanji and Robin come out of the kitchen with a batch of freshly baked cookies and four cups of tea, “Stubborn like her father, it seems,” he comments as he places the plate of cookies and cups of tea on the table.

“Yay! Cookies!” Yuu cheers before she proceeds to grab one from the plate.

“Zoro-san, Sanji-san, are you two staying for dinner?” Robin asks as she pops her head out of the kitchen.

Before Zoro can answer that, Sanji quickly replies, “Of course, Robin-chan! What kind of idiot would turn down the chance of having dinner with a lovely lady such as you?” he glances at Zoro after saying that, the look on his face saying ‘well, this idiot might’.

“Oi, don’t you have two more cases to look into?” Zoro interferes.

“Please, I’m intelligent beyond your comprehension. I can finish them anytime,” Sanji says with a shrug, before he turns to Robin again, “Robin-chan! Allow me to assist you in the kitchen!” and with that, the stupid shitty android prances to the kitchen like the prissy bastard he is.

Zoro merely shakes his head, before the cheer of his daughter catches his attention.

“Papa is staying for dinner! Yay!”

For a moment, the idea that Sanji is doing this just so Zoro can spend more time with Yuu crosses his mind, but he quickly pushes down, because god forbids he starts looking at the android differently. Sanji is a potentially murderous android, and Zoro isn’t planning on forgetting that anytime soon.

XXX

It’s around seven thirty when Zoro finally decides that it’s time to go back to the bureau. Dinner has been served and then cleaned up, and Yuu has taken a bath and is getting ready to watch a Disney movie before going to bed. She asks her father to stay, but Zoro promises her that he’ll take Sunday off to play with her.

“I’m sorry for always troubling you,” Zoro says to Robin as he stands at the door with Sanji, both ready to leave.

“I told you, it’s fine, Zoro-san,” Robin says with a smile, “I enjoy having Yuu-chan around.”

“if there’s anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to tell me, alright?”

Robin chuckles, before saying, “Just take good care of yourself. And don’t forget to be here on Sunday.”

Zoro nods resolutely, “I will.”

Afterwards, they say their goodbyes and finally leave. Once they settle into the car, Sanji immediately comments, “You have a very nice daughter.” He then adds after a short pause, “And Robin-chan is a wonderful woman too. Why aren’t you dating her?”

At that question, Zoro immediately freezes. To be fairly honest, this isn’t the first time someone asked him that question. Nami asked him the same thing a while back, but he still finds the question awkward nonetheless, because he honestly doesn’t have an answer for that. “No reason,” he murmurs as he puts on his seatbelt and ignites the engine.

“At first I thought you two were dating, you know. What’s with her taking care of your daughter and all,” Sanji continues, “But then I noticed that you two aren’t really that close. So what’s stopping you?”

Zoro doesn’t really know how to answer. Sure, he finds Robin supportive and helpful, but he just doesn’t have that kind of interest towards her. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know where to start?” Sanji suggests.

Well, it’s true that Zoro doesn’t know shit about the dating scene. After all, he and Kuina has been together ever since they were kids, so there was really no need for him to worry about first dates and all those other romantic crappy stuffs. But that’s really not the issue here.

“I’m not interested in her,” Zoro finally says.

“How could you not?” Sanji might as well be Robin for all the offense he takes. “She’s perfect, isn’t she? I mean, come on, she can take care of your daughter and financially stable too! What else are you expecting from her, you pompous prick?”

Zoro glares at Sanji, warning him to calm the fuck down, “I’m just not really thinking about those stuffs, okay? I’ve got my hands full with work and Yuu, I don’t have time for all those relationship bullshit.”

“Tch, fine,” Sanji mutters as he folds his arms, “Robin-chan is too pure for you anyway.”

Zoro glances at Sanji questioningly, “What are you getting all pissed for?”

“No reason, just drive, algae head.”

Zoro rolls his eyes and decides not to dwell too much on it. He just sums it up to one of Sanji’s antics, and promptly begins to drive away from Robin’s home. When they return to the bureau an hour later, they immediately search for Marco to report their findings for the day.

“Alright,” Marco says with a nod after he heard Sanji’s report, “I suppose we can put this workshop on our watch list. In the meantime, Sanji, I want you to proceed to your next case.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Zoro, stay back for a while. I need to talk with you,” Marco orders. After Sanji walks out of the room, Marco immediately asks, “How was he? Did he behave well?”

“So far, I don’t see any problem,” Zoro replies, “He’s annoying though.”

“That’s just his personality software, it’s not supposed to present much problem,” Marco remarks. “Is there anything else you’d like to report to me?”

“No, there was nothing out of the ordinary.”

Marco then nods in understanding, “Thanks, Zoro. You’re doing a good job. Go home and get some rest, I’ll take over from here.”

“… Yes, sir.”

XXX

Given the time to really think about it, Zoro realizes that he might not have been truthful to Marco after all. Sure, nothing out of the ordinary happened, but that’s because Zoro was assuming that ‘out of the ordinary’ means a murderous rampage or something along those lines. It doesn’t occur to him until the next morning that Marco could have been asking about Sanji’s behavior as an android.

If that’s what Marco meant, then there are a lot of unusual things about Sanji. For starters, Sanji isn’t passive. He’s bold and aggressive, he can make suggestions and decisions, and he can argue until he’s proven wrong. It contradicts Zoro’s normal experience with other androids in general, because other androids are programmed to be compliant and obedient to humans’ orders, be it good or bad. That’s not what he observed from Sanji though.

He acts as if he has his own free will. As if he’s human…

Involuntarily, he remembers the widely-spread, much-feared story about androids becoming so advance that they’ll end up enslaving humanity. He can’t help but to wonder if Sanji is going to be the first of such intelligent android. It’s disturbing to think about, and the thought continues to bother him as he makes his way to the office with Ace. 

“I heard you got paired up with the newbie,” Ace brings up midway during the journey. “How’s he?”

“Annoying,” Zoro starts off, “with stupid eyebrows. He’s a desperate love-struck idiot, and he does whatever he wants.”

Ace chuckles, “Seems like you two get along well.”

“Get along my ass, I don’t like him.”

“You should introduce me to the guy later. I’m really curious what he’s like. I bet he’s strong. Is he strong? Have you seen him in a fight? Does he have some super power or something?”

Zoro can only tell Ace that he doesn’t know for sure. Zoro didn’t get a chance to see how strong Sanji really is yesterday, since the case was pretty short and uneventful. Today might just be the day though, after all, fighting combat androids is what their job is mostly about. What are the chances of Sanji not getting into a fight two days in a row? Pretty slim, according to Zoro’s experience. A part of him can’t wait to see how well Sanji truly fights, but then there is also a small part of him that worries; what if Sanji has the strength to overpower Zoro and destroy humanity after all?

It’s not that Zoro doesn’t believe in his own swords, he’s Roronoa fucking Zoro, creator and master of the Santoryuu, there’s nothing that he can’t defeat. But then... The worry still persists in his heart, and he can’t tell why for sure.

When they arrive in the bureau, they both find Sanji sitting at Zoro’s desk with legs folded, head propped on his left hand while his right hand flipped through a case file placed on his thigh. “Morning, mosshead,” Sanji greets him with a smirk, “You’re late.”

Zoro glances at his watch. It’s only nine, he’s exactly on time.

Ace suddenly whistles before Zoro can even raise an argument, “Damn bro, you’re hot,” he says with a friendly grin on his face, “The name’s Ace. A senior agent here, nice to meet you.”

Sanji looks at Ace with what can only be described as confusion on his face, “Ah, nice to meet you too. I’m Sanji,” he says after a short pause.

“You didn’t mention that the new kid’s good looking,” Ace says to Zoro as he elbows him on the ribs.

“Ace, you’ve got a boyfriend already,” Zoro points out, “And you think this dartbrow is handsome? You need to go get your eyes checked out.”

Sanji immediately snorts, “Mosshead, you’re ugly enough as it is, jealousy is just gonna make it worse.”

“I think he’s hot,” Ace says with a wide grin, “If I don’t have a boyfriend, I’d definitely dig you, Sanji. Too bad I’ve got one, and he’s the possessive type. I can never get him to agree to a threesome. Are you okay with threesomes?”

Zoro has to refrain himself from laughing at the dumbfounded look on Sanji’s face. “Well… I…” Sanji hesitates as he glances at Zoro, the look on his face saying ‘say something and get me out of this situation you bastard or I will make you regret this’. “I don’t have anything against it…”

Ace once again whistles, “Sanji, you’re a really naughty boy, aren’t you?” he teases.

“T-That’s not it… It’s just that I… Ummm…”

Sanji’s face lights up with a tint of pink, his awkwardness so strong it’s almost palpable. Zoro can’t help but to take pity on him, despite the fact that he enjoys seeing Sanji fumbles uncertainly like this. “Hey, give him a break,” Zoro says as he gently knocks Ace’s head. “Not everyone’s as perverted as you are. Besides, if Marco knows you’re hitting on the new kid, he’s gonna get pissed.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?” Ace says with an easy laugh.

“Oh, really, Ace? But what if I know?”

At the sound of a fourth person, the three of them turn around, only to find the vice-pres standing there with his arms folded and an annoyed look on his face. Immediately, Ace yelps and tries to run away, but Marco manages to snag him by the collar of his shirt. “Ignore what this kid said, Sanji. And get back to work.”

“Yes, sir,” Sanji nods, quickly regaining his composure.

“Come on kid, you need a refresher on your discipline lesson,” Marco says as he drags Ace away.

“B-But I have a lot of work!”

“It’s fine, I’ll make it real quick.”

“Zoro! Help!”

Zoro watches them as they disappear into the meeting room; the room which everyone must absolutely stay away from until the two of them comes out. Within seconds, Zoro can already hear the sound of Ace being roughly shoved against the door and desperately begging for mercy. Some of the poor folks whose working space is located near the meeting room hurriedly gather their stuffs to move to a quieter place.

“Is he going to be alright?” Sanji asks after a moment of silence.

“He deserves it,” Zoro says with a shrug. When he notices that Sanji still looks unconvinced, he finds himself adding, “This isn’t the first time something like this happens. Ace is going to be fine. You have nothing to be worried about.”

“If you say so…” Sanji says as he tears his gaze away from the meeting room.

Concern for others, Zoro mentally adds that to the list of Sanji’s peculiarities that he just made this morning. It’s not uncommon for androids to be concerned for the well-being of others, especially caretaker androids, but even then, the subjects of their concern are limited, and that obviously does not include a stranger that they just met three minutes ago. Embarrassment and shame should probably also make their way to the list, but Chopper – a medical android that works in the bureau as well – also blushes a lot when praised, so Zoro decided against that.

“What case are we working on today?”

“A mafia boss who purchased two combat androids without any permit. He tried to apply for the permit after he purchased the androids, but his application was turned down. We need to confiscate the androids.”

“Alright,” Zoro says with a nod, “Let’s go.”

XXX

As per Sanji’s instructions. Zoro pulls up the car in front of a huge ass mansion with tall iron gates. The mansion is four-story tall, with a grand fountain on the front lawn, and enchanting display of floral collections and marble statues on either side of the main building. Two bodyguards are standing at each side of the gate, dressed in all black and donning black glasses, both as motionless as statues. Well, Sanji did say that this guy is a mafia boss, so this is really the least that Zoro should be expecting.

“Do you have a plan?” Zoro asks the moment he kills the engine of his car.

“We walk in there and talk with the guy.”

 Well, he’s not wrong, Zoro thinks to himself as he remembers his experience with similar mission in the past; more often than not, he walked through front doors and confronted the suspects head-on. After all, he’s a government agent, sneaking around just isn’t their thing. Still, Zoro wishes Sanji is more prepared. They’re entering an enemy territory, and who knows what kind of ambush is waiting for them.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s nothing I can’t handle,” Sanji says as he opens the door and steps out of the car.

“So fucking full of yourself,” Zoro mutters in annoyance.

“Only because it’s true.”

“Do you have an appointment, sir?” one of the two guards asks when Zoro and Sanji approaches the main gate.

Sanji quickly pulls out his badge and shows it to them, “We’re from the Android Protection bureau, here to speak with Mr. Yukimura.”

The two bodyguards exchange a glance, before the second one pulls out a phone and begins making a call to someone inside the house. After a moment of waiting, he nods to his companion, and opens the gate for them. One of the two leads the way inside, while the other stays behind to continue guarding the gate.

Zoro glances at the roof, and around the garden, trying to find any sign of ambush. Sanji, on the other hand, acts like the inexperienced little shit he is and simply strides forward without a care in the world. “Walk slower,” Zoro hisses as he grabs Sanji by his shoulder, “We don’t know what kind of trap we’re walking into.”

“It’s fine,” Sanji says, a bit too nonchalantly for Zoro’s taste, “I don’t sense anything out of the ordinary for now, so we should be pretty safe.”

‘Pretty safe’, right, very convincing. Zoro suppresses the urge to grind his teeth in frustration as they walk towards the front door. The door swings open as they approach, and more burly men in black suit greet them and then lead them inside the mansion. Soon, they find themselves sitting in a spacious parlor across a middle aged man with an impressive beard and slick hair, wearing suit that looks almost as expensive as the one Sanji’s wearing. Zoro doesn’t notice it before, but now he can’t help but to wonder how much Sanji’s suit is worth, and who is sponsoring him.

A funny thought crosses his mind where Sanji and this Mr. Yukimura bond over expensive suits, but that idea quickly flies out of the window when the old man opens his mouth to ask, “What business do you have here, gentlemen?”

“We’re from the Android Protection bureau, and we’re here to confiscate the two units of combat androids you purchased five weeks ago without permit,” Sanji smoothly replies, seemingly not intimidated by the man’s cruel gaze and imposing presence. Not that Zoro is intimidated, but a lesser agent usually gets intimidated easily by this sort of thing.

For a moment, the man regards Sanji icily, before he replies, “I admit, I did make that purchase a while back, but I didn’t realize that I have to apply for the permit before making the purchase. I’ve submit the papers to apply for the permit last week. It should come out by the end of this week.”

A neat excuse, Zoro internally comments, but they know better than that.

“Sir, your permit has been turned down due to the questionable nature of your trade,” Sanji replies, calling the man out on his bullshit. “And I am aware that you have been informed of this as well. Please refrain yourself from feigning ignorance.”

The man glares at Sanji, dangerous and deadly. Neither Sanji nor Zoro flinch, after all, they’re both more lethal than all of the bodyguards in here combined. If there’s anyone in here who should be cowering in fear, it should be him.

“Well, then if you insist, then I suppose there is no other choice,” Mr. Yukimura finally says after a moment of icy silence. “Please wait here while I summon them.”

That’s easy, too easy in fact. So when Zoro and Sanji find themselves held at gunpoint from behind a few minutes later, they’re really not that surprised. Mr. Yukimura introduces the two holding the guns as Lena and Leon, the combat androids that he had purchased. He then proceeds to talk about how he liked having them both in his mansion, and how they should just work up a deal instead.

“Sir, I’m afraid that there is no bargaining with us,” Sanji coldly says the moment the old man suggests it.

“Then, I suppose you prefer to sleep with the fishes?”

“Certainly not,” and then without any kind of fucking warning, Sanji ducks his head out of the gun’s trajectory, grabs the arms of the female android behind her, yanks her forward, and then twists her arm so that when the gun comes off, the bullet goes straight into the male android’s head.

Despite being surprised, Zoro reacts on his instincts and immediately sheathes out Wadou. Without even thinking twice about it, he jumps onto the sofa they’re sitting on, and drives his sword through the female android’s back. The female android twitches for a moment, but quickly goes limp. Sanji then snatches the gun from her hand, pushes her off his shoulder, before pointing the gun at Mr. Yukimura.

“We’ll take them from here on, sir,” Sanji says as he elegantly folds his legs.

Zoro stares in awe, and he would have done so for much longer if the current situation isn’t ringing the alarm in his head. Bodyguards burst into the room, guns ready and pointed at both of them. It’s clear that they’re outnumbered. Zoro counted eight of them; it’s a small number in his opinion, pretty manageable if Zoro isn’t duty-bound not to kill them unless absolutely necessary.

“Zoro,” Sanji suddenly says as he gives him a side look, “Get down.”

And that’s the only warning he gives, before he raises the gun in his hand, and forcefully throws it at the closest bodyguard. The gun hits his nose, a painful thudding ensues, before he falls down groaning with a bloody nose. Zoro decides to ignore Sanji’s order and seizes the moment of distraction to hit the bodyguard closes to him with the back of his sword, effectively knocking him out.

Shots are fired, Zoro doesn’t know whom it was aimed at, but he ducked and rolled forward anyway, before closing in on the next one and unleashing his pound cannon attack. Another shot ensues, and this time, a bullet grazes his arm. Zoro curses as he tries to figure out where that came from, but when he turns his head around, all that he can see is Sanji standing there calmly, with hands in his pocket and his left leg planted on top of a bodyguard’s head. Thinking that Sanji has got him under control, Zoro moves his attention to the others, but that’s when he notices that all the bodyguards are slumped painfully against the four walls of the room, writhing painfully and whimpering pathetically, few nursing their sides, while most nursing their heads. All of them beaten down, but not dead.

“What the…?” Zoro can’t help but mutter out loud.

“Tch, I told you to get down,” Sanji grunts as he walks over to Zoro to get a closer look at the wound on his arm. “Looks pretty shallow though. Are you hurt elsewhere?”

“No,” Zoro shortly replies, still unable to figure out what the fuck just happened. Did Sanji really do all that by himself? Zoro considers himself to be pretty fast as compared to the average human, but even then, he can only take down three of them in such a short amount of time. So how the fuck did Sanji take down the other five in the same amount of time? At first, Zoro refuses to believe that Sanji may have moved faster than him, but the more he tries to find some other explanation, the more he realizes that there’s just no other explanation.

Sanji looks him over once, before he nods and says, “It doesn’t seem life-threatening, we’ll deal with it later,” he then turns his gaze to Mr. Yukimura, who hasn’t moved an inch from where he’s sitting, but has considerably gone pale. “Thank you for your cooperation,” Sanji says with a cocky smirk, “If there’s nothing else, we’ll take our leave.”

The mafia boss doesn’t say anything, and Sanji proceeds to lift the female android bridal style. Still in a state of disbelief, Zoro mutely slings the male android over his shoulder, before he trails behind Sanji out of the mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates might be slow, but I'll try to update once a week. Please leave kudos and comments! Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Reprogramming Workshop is stationed in the basement of the bureau, and it is here where combat androids – both whole and broken – are gathered to be repurposed. A combat android which is still whole, or can still be fixed with minimum resources, is usually repurposed; that is, their combat software completely deleted, and then replaced with some other less harmful software, before being redistributed to the market. The ones which are broken beyond repair though, are usually taken apart; useful components are stored for later use, while others are simply thrown away.

When Zoro and Sanji step inside the Reprogramming Workshop, carrying with them their haul of the day, they’re greeted with the sight of rows of the Android Programming Altercation chairs to the left of the entrance, neatly arranged in a perfect grid, with each chair having a small computer hooked right next to it. Turning their gaze to the right, they’re greeted with the sight of rows of operating tables, upon which some androids are laid down. Programmers and engineers are all over the place, furiously typing in their station, placing combat androids on the chair, wheeling in and out containers; the place simply looks busy and hectic.

“Zoro! Hey man, what have you got for me there?” Upon hearing that voice, Zoro turns around to see one of his close friends, Usopp, entering the workshop.

“Confiscated androids,” Zoro replies in Sanji’s stead, “Where can we put them?”

The head of the Reprogramming Workshop inspects the androids they’re carrying for a moment, his brows knitted in deep though, before he finally says, “They’re busted pretty badly, but maybe…” he trails off for a moment, “Well, I think you can put them there for now,” Usopp says as he points at the area with the operating tables. “I’ll take a closer look later. Right now, we’re pretty swamped with reprogramming.”

Zoro does notice that the reprogramming side of the workshop looks especially busy. They’re most likely busy reprogramming the androids he and Tashigi found the other day; or perhaps androids from some other warehouses that another agent managed to bust.

Usopp leads the way to the repair side, where they can see some engineers working on the androids, soldering away, fitting in parts, cutting open and peeling away the layer of fake skin. Out of pure curiosity, Zoro glances at Sanji, but finds that his companion doesn’t look the least disturbed by this sight. Zoro thought he might, after all, isn’t this like the android’s version of an autopsy room?

“Here, put them over here,” Usopp says as he taps on two empty tables.

After Zoro and Sanji laid them down, Usopp inspects them closer, before commenting, “Seems like they’re combat androids from the Founstain series. They’re pretty recent, you know. If only you didn’t damage them so badly, we can probably still sell them off for good money.”

Zoro merely shrugs at that, “We tried.”

Usopp then takes out his tablet, and begins inputting information about these two androids. He asks Sanji several questions about the case related to the confiscation of these androids, before he finally allows them to leave.

“You should get that treated,” Sanji says as they walk out of the workshop while pointing at Zoro’s bleeding arm, which Sanji has temporarily patched up with Zoro’s bandana. “Come on, I’ll take you there.”

Zoro wants to tell him to fuck off, because hell he can find his own way, thank you very much. However, the event that happens earlier that day has caused an ominous feeling to settle deep within his chest, and he’s having a hard time dealing with it. No, scratch that, the ominous feeling has been there ever since this morning when he realizes that Sanji is not just like any other android, the fight in the mansion just helps to amplify that feeling. He tries to turn a blind eye, must be a fluke, there’s just no way it’s possible. But that fight in the mansion keeps replaying in his head, and he eventually finds himself doubting his own capability to deal with Sanji when the need ever arise.

What if… What if Sanji is stronger than him?

He decides that there’s only one way to settle this, “Come with me.”

XXX

The fifth level basement is mostly empty. There are about three cars parked in there, each spaced quiet far away from another, but other than that, no one else is there. The place is brightly lit, ideal for what Zoro’s planning, though the air feels a bit warm and stuffy. Still, that’s not going to put him at a great disadvantage. He has fought in worse conditions before.

“Look shithead, this is a bad idea,” Sanji says the moment he sees Zoro sheathing out all his swords. “I’m a state-of-the-art combat android. You’re just going to hurt yourself.”

Zoro ignores his words. He has to know for sure. He needs to experience it himself. He places Sandai Kitetsu in his mouth, bites it down tightly, and then falls into stance. Sanji looks at him with wide eyes, obviously impressed, but either by Zoro’s Santoryuu or stupidity, Zoro can’t tell for sure.

“You’re gonna get into trouble,” Sanji still tries to reason with him, “You’re supposed to work with me. Not pick a fight with me. Oi, are you listening? Mosshead?”

For a moment the idea of being scolded by Marco and Shanks almost makes him change his mind. Almost.

This isn’t just about his capability as an agent, this is about his capability as a swordsman too. As someone who has been training in the way of swords ever since he was five, Zoro prides himself in his ability to cut down all enemies coming his way. He’s a prodigy, a genius, the best swordsman of his time. But then, how can he claim to be the best when he has to constantly questions his capability to take down Sanji when the need ever arise?

That’s why; he needs to find out now. He needs to settle that question right here, right now.

“Draw out your weapon,” Zoro orders when he notices that Sanji still looks unprepared.

Sanji looks conflicted for a moment, but then upon seeing that there is no talking Zoro out of this, he clicks his tongue out of irritation and then says, “I don’t need one.”

Zoro doesn’t know if Sanji’s underestimating him, or if that’s just the way he fights. There are many combat androids which specialize in hand-to-hand combat, perhaps Sanji is one of them. “If you say so,” Zoro grunts, before he slowly slides into his combat headspace. There is a moment of tense pause, with just them silently glaring at each other, before Zoro finally charges forward at Sanji.

The swings and swipes of his swords are rapidly met with the heels of Sanji’s dress shoes. Zoro doesn’t know what they’re made of, but they have to be pretty sturdy to withstand the sharpness of Zoro’s blade. He keeps on pushing forward, relentless slashing, but all he can ever cut is the empty space. Sanji moves quickly and flexibly, with agility that Zoro has never encountered before.

They keep at it for a while, until Zoro realizes that Sanji’s leading him into moving in circles, and that Sanji’s not attacking back. “Fight me seriously, you shitty android!” Zoro growls, before increasing the intensity of his attack.

“If I fight you seriously, then you’re as good as dead,” Sanji replies, his voice still cool and calm, probably because he doesn’t have to bother with oxygen and breathing, the shitty bastard.

Zoro suddenly stops his assaults, knowing that Sanji can probably keep up with this until Zoro passed out. “If you won’t get serious, then I will,” he hisses, before he falls into stance and prepares for one of his attacks. “Shishi sonson!” Zoro musters all his strength, and charges at Sanji. In the few milliseconds before Zoro gets him, he sees Sanji’s eyes widen in surprise. In the few seconds after he delivers that attack, he’s standing back to back with Sanji in perfect stillness.

After a while though, Sanji slowly turns to face him and says, “Don’t challenge me again, Zoro. You can’t win against me.” And with that, Sanji walks out of the fight with a small scratch on his cheek.

Zoro remains still until he can no longer hear the echoes of Sanji’s footsteps, before he sheathes back Wadou and Sandai Kitetsu with trembling hands. He holds Yuubashiri in his hand for a while, staring at the hilt, before slowly trailing his gaze up the blade, up to the point where Sanji has snapped it in half. To his left, embedded deep into the concrete wall, is the remaining length of the blade.

As it turns out, Zoro is too weak to take on Sanji. But that fact isn’t crushing him as much as it should have. No, Zoro is more traumatized by what he saw and felt back then; everything was moving so fast Zoro couldn’t register much, but right at the moment when Yuubashiri came in contact with Sanji’s leg, Zoro swore he could see the orange glow of flame, and feel a searing heat brushed against his skin.

Sanji’s leg was moving so fast, it caught fire.

XXX

Zoro doesn’t know for how long he has been sitting cross-legged in that silent basement when Marco finally approaches him, stoic and calm as ever, but no doubt, he has found out about what happened. Whether Marco found out from Sanji or from one of the bazillion CCTV they installed in the bureau, Zoro couldn’t care any less. His mind is too wrapped up around the fact that he has just experienced an utter, humiliating defeat.

For a moment, Marco doesn’t say anything; he merely stands before the brooding swordsman. After a while though, he breaks the silence by saying, “If it’s any consolation, I didn’t even manage to nick him.” Zoro looks up at Marco, eyes wide, because this is the first time he heard about this. He doesn’t need to ask to know that Marco’s telling him about his own round against Sanji. “I saw what you did to his face. It’s pretty impressive.”

“… I still lost,” Zoro mutters unhappily.

Marco let out a sigh, “He’s a state-of-the-art combat android, Zoro. He has over than fifty thousand hours of combat experience jammed into his memory. He might as well be a war veteran. We didn’t stand a chance.”

Although that explains a lot, the fact that Zoro was helpless is still pissing him off. “I’m too weak,” is all he can grit out at Marco.

Marco once again sighs, “You’re only human. Sanji is a product of rapid technological development. You two are in a whole different league. Don’t beat yourself up over this… The fact that we can’t match up to them is the reason why androids like Sanji have force shut-down commands.”

Zoro has always been aware that a time will come when his sword won’t be able to match up against a combat android anymore, but it’s not something that he takes seriously. So far, everything’s going right for him, so far, there’s no reason for him to take that issue seriously. Right now though… Sanji has flipped the fucking metaphorical table.

“Marco…” Zoro softly says, “I’m sorry, but… I’m gonna need the day off.”

“You’re not getting paid though.”

“It’s fine. I just need some time.”

“… Suit yourself, kid.”

XXX

Yuu’s face lights up like a beacon the moment she runs out of her classroom to find Robin and Zoro both waiting for her. Like a cannon ball, the little girl enthusiastically launches herself at her father, a broad smile on her face. She keeps telling him how glad she is to see him pick her up and Zoro can’t help but to smile at her spirit and vigor. Yuu takes after her mother so much; high-spirited and relentless, bright to the point of endearing. It’s one of the many reasons why he treasures her very much.

As Robin prepares dinner that evening, Zoro sits down with Yuu and play dolls with her. It’s a bit ridiculous for an adult like him to play around with frilly pink dolls, but as long as Yuu is happy, he doesn’t really mind the shame.

It’s nice to spend his time with his daughter like this; it helps him takes his mind off the issues that is gnawing through his mind. Still, it doesn’t really solve anything. By the time he finishes putting Yuu to bed, he finds himself nursing a bottle of sake in Robin’s kitchen, the memory of the fight earlier playing in a torturous loop inside his head. Every now and then, he tries to recall Marco’s words; trying to gain comfort from them. Yet, Zoro feels like he’s using Marco’s words as an excuse instead for being the inadequate swordsman he is, and that just makes him feel even worse.

A father who’s barely there, and now an inadequate swordsman; the list of his failings just keeps on growing. He’s aware that he’s spiraling into self-loathing again – something that he hasn’t done since he moved on from the death of his wife – but he just experienced a humiliating defeat, so he feels like he deserves to loathe himself again, just for tonight. He promises himself that he’ll pull his shit together tomorrow morning.

Just as takes another swig from the sake bottle, Robin enters the kitchen, fresh out of the bath with damp hair and soft bathrobe wrapped around her slim figure. “Would you mind if I join you?” Robin asks, and Zoro merely grunts at that. She then proceeds to pull out a bottle of her fine wine and a wine glass from her cabinet. She pours out the dark red liquid in silence, taking her time to sniff and swirl before taking a delicate sip.

“Rough day at work?” Robin finally asks.

“Sort of,” Zoro grunts, before taking another swig. This feels nostalgic. He and Robin used to drink together like this back when Zoro was still trying to get over Kuina’s death. Robin would gently try to get him to talk, and he wouldn’t bother putting much resistance because this is Robin, okay? She just has that kind of all-knowing and understanding presence that just makes people want to trust her, even though common sense tells them they shouldn’t.

“Why don’t you tell me about it?”

Zoro doesn’t really know where to start. He can probably start by telling her what happened that day, but then it would be too long of a story. He considers telling her about the fight only, but then he just doesn’t feel like telling other people about that defeat just yet. He still can’t get over the humiliation. After a few moments of further consideration, he finally says, “Combat androids… Are getting stronger.” Now that he thinks about it, maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut.

“It’s inevitable,” Robin replies, her tone free from any kind of judgment, so maybe Zoro didn’t really make a fool out of himself by saying something that random out of the blue.

“It’s just not right,” Zoro says as he suddenly straightens his back and looks at Robin in the eyes. He feels anger bubbling up in his chest, assaulting him all at once when he has been doing a good job suppressing them throughout this afternoon. “They’re android, machines, how can they be better than us?” That’s a stupid question, of course it is, but the words just tumbles out of his mouth, and there’s nothing he can do to take it back.

Robin looks back, gaze still gentle, unfazed by Zoro’s sudden outburst, “they’re not better than us, Zoro.”

Zoro has heard this argument tons of times; it’s just literally everywhere. People are heatedly talking about it, claiming that no matter how advance android becomes, they’re still nothing more than products of human’s intelligence. Machines. Slaves. Tools. They don’t have emotions. They can’t feel. They’re fake. Still, that’s not the fucking problem here, not for Zoro anyway.

Sanji just handed him his ass in a fight. And Zoro was helpless and it’s just so fucking frustrating and he wants to train until he passes out, but that’s really not going to help, is it? They’re in a whole different league, Sanji’s leg moved so fast it caught fucking fire, how the fuck was Zoro supposed to stand up against that?

Zoro takes another shot straight from the bottle to prevent the words from bursting out. Robin wouldn’t understand. She’s not like him. She’s not a fighter. She doesn’t understand what he’s going through. Luffy probably would, he works in the intel bureau, fending off assassins and murderous androids is his job, he should understand. Problem is, he’s away on a mission, and fuck if Zoro knows when he’s coming back. That’s just how Luffy is, he appears one day, hangs around for months, then he disappears for months without a trace.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” Zoro says as an excuse, before he strides out of the room. He needs to be alone, needs more time to lick up his metaphorical wound. Given enough time, maybe, just maybe, he can come to terms with this new development. Or maybe not. Who knows? Fuck, he feels like violently cutting down something, preferably some shitty combat android with blonde hair and a cocky attitude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to write the next chapter from Sanji's POV. I heard switching POV isn't really recommended? What do you guys think?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Brainless marimo,” Sanji mutters to himself as he smooth the band-aid over the cut on his cheek. He checks himself on the mirror, before clicking his tongue in annoyance, again. Stupid Neanderthal ruining his face, now that band-aid is going to be a permanent part of his face because he can’t fucking heal like humans. In retrospect, Sanji should have broken two of his swords instead of just one.

“Oh, hey, Sanji,” Ace enters the bathroom at that moment, seemingly surprised to see Sanji in there. “What happened to your face?” he quickly notices the band-aid on Sanji’s cheek.

“Brainless seaweed-head won’t listen when I told him he doesn’t stand a chance against me,” Sanji says with a snort, still irritated about his permanent new look.

“Zoro did that?” Ace then laughs. “I can’t believe it! Zoro challenged you to a fight? How did it go? Did you win?”

Sanji rolls his eyes, “Naturally.”

“Man, you’re trying to pull my leg, aren’t you? You mean to tell me that you won against the bureau’s greatest swordsman? Wait, no, the world’s greatest swordsman?”

Sanji has heard about this before. In his spare time, he took the liberty to do some background check on Zoro, and the result is pretty impressive, in light of human’s standards. Sword prodigy, creator of the Santoryuu technique, greatest swordsman in the world… The list of his achievements in the sword-fighting world is remarkable, the praises directed at his genius uncountable. So, it doesn’t really bother him when Ace looks at him with skeptical eyes. “I did. You can go ask him.” Not that Zoro would ever admit it, judging from his stubbornness and all.

“Wow, that’s pretty unbelievable,” Ace says, though the look on his face is more contemplative than impressed. Sanji quirks a brow at that, and Ace quickly adds, “Look, I’m his bro, see? I know him, so I’m just feeling for him, you know? Zoro’s a prideful guy, he must be feeling pretty bad about himself if you really did kick his ass.”

“He was asking for it. I told him he doesn’t stand a chance,” Sanji complains.

“Well, that’s just him. Can’t stand still if he knows someone stronger than him is standing in the same room,” Ace chuckles at that.

Sanji snorts, but doesn’t say anything in return. He’s still irritated about the whole permanent damage to his face thing, and Ace trying to give him the ‘he’s not that bad of a guy’ talk isn’t really helping.

Once again, Ace picks on the displeasure Sanji is radiating, and approaches him with a smile, “hey, come on. You two are working together as partners, right? You need to get along with him. Zoro’s above apologizing, so you need to be the bigger man in this situation.”

“Fuck off,” Sanji hisses, before he hotly strides out of the bathroom. If there was anyone to blame in this situation, it would have been the green-haired bastard with barely two brain cells to rub together. He was the one who challenged Sanji, he was the one who kept on attacking, and he was the one who cut Sanji’s face. And Ace had the fucking nerves to ask Sanji to fucking apologize? Humans are just so fucking unbelievable.

“Sanji, wait!” Ace’s voice jars him from his thought, but he proceeds to walk on towards the office area where his next case file is waiting. Ace quickly catches up to him, “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. You seem like a decent guy, and I like you, really,” Ace says as they walk side by side. “It’s just that… Well, I just want you to be able to get along with Zoro, you know. Zoro’s socially inept. He doesn’t know how to make friends. He’s inconsiderate, and sometimes hostile. But he’s a good guy at heart. I just don’t want you to go around hating him, that’s all.”

Sanji stops in his track with a sigh, “Look,” he says as he turns to face Ace, “I don’t hate him. I know that he’s a nice guy. I’ve seen him with his daughter, okay? I know that he’s not evil. I’m just pissed. Look what he did to my face!”

Ace blinks at that, looking slight dumfounded. “Oooooookay,” he slowly nods, “That makes sense, I guess.”

Sanji fights down the urge to roll his eyes. To be fair, Ace still doesn’t know that he’s a combat android, so he doesn’t know that Sanji will have to return to the damned Android Development Facility in order to get something as small as this fixed. With a shake of his head, he turns around to walk on. Ace keeps up with him, not understanding why Sanji is so upset by a simple cut, and yet still willing to go along with it, and then starts talking about how women like men with scars, before not-so-subtly implying that he thinks that men with scars are ‘so fucking hot’. Fortunately, they come across Marco before Ace can start going into great details about the scars that his boyfriend has.

“What happened to your face?” Marco asks immediately.

“Fucking marimo bastard cuts me up, that’s what,” Sanji growls. He catches the minute twitch of Marco’s hand at his tone, but decides to ignore it. Marco, and every other single person who knows that Sanji is a combat android, is wise to be wary of him. Sometimes, even Sanji is wary of himself.

“You got into a fight with him?” Marco asks, his tone carefully neutral.

Sanji shrugs, “He started it.”

A small crease makes its way to Marco’s face, but the vice president of the bureau doesn’t make any further comment on that, and decides to change the topic to the report that Sanji has turned in last night. He praises Sanji’s well-written report, and encourages him to keep up the good work, before taking Ace by the scruff of his shirt and pulling him away. Sanji watches as the couple disappears around the corner, before he continues on his way to the office area.

XXX

By the time Sanji meets up with Shanks to return to his place for the night, Sanji finds himself already in a better mood. Work has helped to distract him, and besides, Sanji thinks to himself, he has already broken one of Zoro’s swords, and swords are supposed to be a pretty big deal for a swordsman like him, right? All in all, it’s a pretty fair trade, though Sanji still thinks that he should have broken two instead of one.

“I heard from Marco about what happened earlier,” Shanks brings up as they slide into the backseat of his car, “And I saw the blade in the basement’s wall. I gotta say, I’m impressed. You really lived up to your reputation, don’t you?”

Sanji has very little idea of this ‘reputation’ Shanks is talking about, but he supposed it has something to do with the warnings that the head of the Android Development Facility imparted on Shanks before handing Sanji over. “Thanks,” he simply replies. Of course he lives up to his reputation; combat and destruction is his design after all.

 “I can’t wait to see Zoro tomorrow. The guy’s probably going to walk in like a kicked puppy,” Shanks laughs. “We should get someone to take a picture when he walks in!”

The fact that Shanks seems to be amused by Zoro’s misery should have hinted some sort of personal grudge, but the past few days has taught Sanji that that’s just how Shanks is; everything is just amusing for him, no exception. Even when he found out that a deadly combat is going to have to live in his place, Shanks merely laughed and said ‘awesome, now I’ll have someone to do the chores’. 

Speaking of chores…

“Is there anything particular you want for dinner?” Sanji asks.

Shanks pauses to think for a moment, before he shrugs and says, “Surprise me, cook.”

Sanji frowns at the nickname, a denial already forming in his processor, but he knows better than to argue with Shanks. The president of the bureau has insists on calling Sanji with that name after he first tasted Sanji’s cooking. He said Sanji’s cooking tasted better than anything he has ever eaten, and from then on insists that Sanji cooks his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sanji doesn’t really mind; cooking is fairly simple and his hands are made for dexterous works after all. Plus, it gets Shanks off his unhealthy pizza and beer diet he was so goddamn proud of, and Sanji counts that as a win.

“Law called me earlier,” Shanks brings up midway through the journey. At the mention of that name, Sanji perks up. “He wanted to know how you’re doing and all. I told him that you’re doing great. Your cooking’s awesome, and you’re doing well at work too. The kid got all pissy when he heard that you’re cooking for me! Said that the government didn’t invest one hundred and seventy seven billion beli so that I can have a personal cook!” Shanks bursts our laughing. “That guy’s so funny. I really like him.”

Sanji has to admit, that’s pretty funny, but ‘Law’ and ‘funny’ do not belong in the same sentence. The head of the Android Development Facility is a humorless, cold, and calculating man; and he also happens to be the leader of the Vinsmoke Androids Project. Despite the fact that he plays a major role in Sanji’s creation, Sanji bears no fondness for the perfectionist bastard.

“I wouldn’t call him funny,” Sanji replies.

Shanks glances at him, “You don’t get along with him, huh? What’s wrong? You got some issues with your daddy?”

Sanji shoots him a dirty glare, “Fuck no! That’s gross, you perverted old geezer!”

Shanks holds his hands up while grinning from ear to ear, “Hey, he’s your creator, so that technically makes him your daddy, right? Hey, I understand your issues, really. I was a teenager once too! Those days weren’t my best, honestly speaking. I was riding around in big bikes and carrying around baseball bats, got into fights with kids from other schools. I had a nickname, they called me ‘Red-hair Shanks’. Kinda stupid, I know, but hey, my name was legitimately a death threat. I was cool,” he says with a cocky smirk. “Anyway, thing is, I was a rebellious teenager once. Sure, I didn’t have a father, but I get all that angsty, emo stuff. So feel free to talk to me, I’m all ears!”

Sanji doesn’t say anything for a moment, too dumbfounded by this guy’s honest-to-god stupidity. Finally, with a sigh, Sanji says, “I’m an android, Shanks. I don’t go through that kind of shit.”

“You don’t?” Shanks looks at him incredulously, “Really? No first wet dream? No awkward first boner? Do you have morning woods? You don’t collect porn?!” he sounds more and more ridiculed by the second.

“Course I don’t, idiot. I’m an android with professionalism and integrity. Don’t pull me down to your level.”

“Don’t try to act innocent! I saw you staring at Tashigi’s breasts!”

“You can’t blame me if I’m programmed to respect women!”

“Staring at her jugs is a form of respect?! Where the heck did you come from?” Shanks quickly shakes his head, before he wraps his arm around Sanji and pulls the android closer to him, “Listen, kid. You obviously got some deep-seated issues with women. So let’s hit the club, now!”

“What?! You’re crazy! What about dinner?! I still have shits to do!”

“You can do it tomorrow. Tonight, I’m teaching you on how to be a man!”

Sanji stares, complains, and when that bear no result, he resigns himself to whatever Shanks has in store for him. At least it doesn’t require him to kill someone or anything, Sanji tries to reassure himself.

XXX

The next few days, Sanji finds himself working with an oddly silent marimo. Sure, they keep conversation regarding work as professional as possible, but when work is out of the equation, Zoro is mostly quiet and non-responsive. He doesn’t snap back or retort when Sanji calls him names, and he doesn’t answer much when Sanji asks him about Yuu or Robin. The marimo bastard is obviously in a funk, and Sanji can’t help but to wonder if that one match has caused this. Sanji has tried to look up the matter online, try to see if there’s anything he can do to pull the marimo out of his funk, but then apparently talking about feelings and cheering other people up requires skills that are beyond his specs, and isn’t that just fucking ridiculous?

Sanji tells himself that there’s no reason to bother too much about it. As long as he gets his missions done, nothing else matters. Zoro can brood all he wants, and Sanji will just keep doing as he’s told. Still, as the day goes by, Sanji finds himself second-guessing his decision to ignore the mater. See, the thing is, Sanji would have been fine ignoring the matter if the marimo doesn’t show up in the bureau reeking like booze more often than not, and spend lunch breaks and office-after hours working out in the gym like his life depended on it. Not only is he not taking good care of himself, it’s obvious that he’s also neglecting his daughter and Robin.

Sanji decides that he has had enough of it when Sunday comes around, and he finds the marimo bastard in the office’s gym, working out even though Sanji remembers clearly that he’s supposed to be with his daughter. Insensitive, lousy bastard; he made a promise with his daughter, Sanji was fucking there when he made that promise! How could he break that promise?!

Angrily, Sanji throws down the file he has been reading through, earning himself alarmed glances from the other poor bastards who have to work overtime, and stalks towards the gym. Once he swipes his access card, he purposefully makes his way to the marimo, who’s doing one handed pushups in the back of the room, and immediately yells, “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Zoro glances up at him, before he snorts and continues with his rep, “Are you going blind, shitty android?”

Sanji fights down the urge to drop kick the bastard on his head, “Aren’t you supposed to be with Yuu today?!”

Immediately, Zoro’s eyes widened. “Wha -? What day is today?!” he demands as he straightens up himself into a standing position.

“It’s motherfucking Sunday, you idiot!” Sanji replies, not bothering to hide his anger, “And your promised her that you’re going to take her to the park today!”

For a moment, Zoro stares at him, before he smirks to himself and looks down onto the floor, looking somewhat defeat. “Fucking hell,” he breaths out loudly, before rubbing his face. “Fuck.”

Sanji ignores the twinge of sympathy that crosses his mind, but he pushes I down and says, “Look, it’s only nine fifty four. You can still make it on time if you leave now. You’ll probably arrive at Robin’s place at eleven, and yes, I’ve taken into account your sense of direction in my calculation. It’s Sunday, the traffic isn’t that bad, I’ve checked. So now, you need to go get –“

“Zip it, I know what I have to do!” Zoro growls, before he rushes over to the shower, without even so much as a fucking ‘thanks’. The shitty bastard.

Sanji knows better than to delay Zoro any longer. He knows that Zoro needs to race against time if he wants to be there on time for his daughter. But fuck, Sanji is just so fucking angry because here he stands, all nice and civil and considerate, and this bastard just have to keep treating him like an enemy. Like what the fuck did Sanji even do wrong?! All Sanji ever did wrong is to break the bastard’s sword, and that’s just the least he deserves after nicking Sanji’s face! What the fuck?!

“Look mister,” Sanji hotly goes up to him as soon as Zoro walks out of the changing room, “I can’t stand this shit anymore, you hear me? I tried. I so fucking tried to be nice to you, but you just have to keep treating me like shit, and I’m not putting up with your attitude any longer. You tell me what fucking problem is that you have with me, or I’m going to request for a partner change, because dear fucking lord, I cannot keep up with this anymore!”

Zoro’s face immediately goes dark as he replies with the same level of intensity, “My problem? You wanna know my fucking problem with you?! You wouldn’t even understand half of it! What do you know about training so hard until your hands bleed out?! What do you know about the effort I put in into becoming the very best?! What do you know about how I feel when everything I’ve done is all just a joke because some smartass bastard can build an android that can hand me my ass in a quarter of the time it took me to get this far?! What. Do. You. Fucking. Know?!”

“Bastard! You think you’re the only one who’s been suffering?! You think I don’t go through tests and modifications? You think it’s all sunshines and rainbows for me? Because let me tell you, idiot, you so dead wrong! You know what they did to me during testing? They put me in a fucking cage and force me to fight humans and androids until my system fails! They forced me to keep going when I can’t even feel anything anymore! Sometimes, when they’re feeling creative, they might even ask me to tear a limb or two with my fucking bare hands, and fucking hell, you probably don’t even know how disgusting that feels!”

Sanji pushes down the memory making its way to his main processor. No, he doesn’t want to replay those moments in his head. He doesn’t want to remember the nightmare, doesn’t want to remember how he was once asked to rip the heart out of a living man. Doesn’t want to remember the fearful look on Zeff’s face as Sanji wrapped his hands around his neck and – No, no, no!

Zoro visibly recoils, but then the dark look returns to his face as he hisses out his reply, “You’re a fucking android!”

And just like that, the storm of anger and irritation dies down in Sanji’s head. In it's place, comes the cold kind of anger that usually appears when he's ready to brutally murder someone. There it is, he thinks to himself, that one fucking argument that he loathes the most. The one argument that he has heard one too many times, the one that the scientists keep throwing at him when he asked not to be put under those tests anymore. You’re an android, they said, we can always wipe your memory if you don’t like it. You can always turn off your emotion functions, they told him. You’re an android, they said to him once, you’re not supposed to feel that much, are you sure there’s nothing wrong with your system?

_"You are made to kill. Anything else aside from that doesn't matter."_

_"You are supposed to kill them!"_

_"Dearest little brother, we're combat androids. Defeat, crush, kill. It's just that simple. I can only assume that your AI is defective if you're finding it impossible to execute such simple commands. Should I just kill you and end your misery?"_

It’s just not fucking fair. Just because his emotions are derived from mathematical and logical functions, doesn’t mean he can’t suffer from guilt or remorse. Just because he’s made of synthetic neurons, doesn’t mean he’s any less immune to them. Just because he’s a combat android, doesn’t mean he has no right to feel or live. So why are these people telling him that he can’t, that he’s not supposed to? Just why?

“Sanji!” Zoro’s sharp voice snaps him from his thoughts. One look at his face, and Sanji can pick out the worry and guilt on his face.

At that moment, Sanji registers the wetness on his cheek, and only then does he realize that tears have spilled out of his eyes. “Fuck,” he murmurs as he quickly looks away, wiping the tears and asking his processor to stop this shit now because fuck, he doesn’t need Zoro to know that he’s just a fucking defective combat android.

“Hey, are you alright?” Zoro asks, concern clear in his voice, “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to –“

“Nah, it’s fine,” Sanji tries, and fails, to keep his emotion neutral, “It happens sometimes. I get too emotional and shits like this sorta happen. Not your fault. My AI’s just not that great at controlling my emotions. When I get upset, I’m a pathetic sobbing mess, and when I’m mad…” he trails off then shrugs meaningfully, “You know how it goes.”

Zoro slowly nods, “Yeah… I know…” he still sounds concerned though.

A beat passes without them saying anything. Sanji decides that there’s nothing else they can say in this current situation. With a wave of his hand, he says, “Go. Yuu is waiting for you, I’m sure.” And without another word, Sanji walks out of the gym, trying to put on a face and act as if nothing has happened.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

If anyone tries to describe Zoro, one of the words that they might use is ‘insensitive’. Zoro is a simple man who likes to be straightforward, so straightforward in fact, that he’s just painfully blunt. Throughout the course of his life, he has hurt the feelings of those close to him a considerable number of times. Take his late wife, for example; she used to threaten to break up with him over his intolerable attitude for so many fucking times that Zoro lost count after the eleventh. That’s just a testament of how screwed up he is when it comes to social interactions. Zoro is aware of how fucking socially inept he is.

So naturally, Zoro finds himself having a hard time trying to understand what he said wrong to Sanji the other day. He admits that it was wrong for him to lash out at Sanji like that; after all, the android has done nothing wrong in the first place. But Zoro was too frustrated back then to think clearly, and he lashed out without giving it a second thought. So yeah, he probably needs to apologize for that. What Zoro still don’t understand though, is what made Sanji cry. All Zoro did was point out the one obvious fact that Sanji is an android, and then the android went all emotional over that.

“You. Are. An idiot.” Nami tell him after he finished telling her the whole story. Sure, he’s probably going to regret going to her for advice, like he always does, but the more Zoro ponders over it, the more desperate he becomes, and there’s really no one else better suited to answer the question that Nami because the witch is also an android. “An insensitive idiot. You’re stupid, and tactless, and I still wonder why I haven’t killed you yet for being such a rude jerk.”

Zoro rolls his eye as he folds his arms, “Rather than saying that shit, why don’t you just tell me what I did wrong?”          

Nami stirs her coffee thoughtfully for a moment, the look on her face unreadable. As an android engineered by the renowned CEO of the Flam Inc., Nami is by far the most advanced android Zoro has ever known. She’s smart and knows how to put Luffy in line, and that’s just amazing because no one can put Luffy in line before she came around. Zoro doesn’t interact much with her. Nami works as the personal assistant of the CEO of the Flam Inc., so, much like Zoro, her scheduled is just packed and she barely has time to hang out unless Luffy is back in town. But they’re in the same group of friends and Nami can drink without getting drunk, so they mostly get along over silent drinking competitions and the occasional banters and then consultations like this which revolves around Zoro’s social ineptitude. Zoro would have gone to Robin for consultations, but then Robin would probably just smile and then politely try to explain, in a roundabout way, where Zoro went wrong. Nami, on the other hand, would just sledgehammer him with the truth.

As Zoro watcher her think, he can’t help but to realize that, Just like Sanji, she looks and acts so human that it’s actually easy to forget that she’s just a machine. The only difference between them is that Nami can’t even deliver a decent punch even if her life depended on it.

After a while, Nami sighs in exasperation, before saying, “Okay, you better listen carefully, because I’m only going to say this once,” she lets that sink in, before asking, “How would you feel if someone said that I don’t deserve to be with Luffy just because I’m an android?”

“Does it matter? Luffy likes you a lot,” Zoro points out, not making the connection.

“No, no, I mean… How would you feel if they said that my feelings are not real, and that I can’t be in love just because I’m not human?”

Zoro tilts his head in confusion. Isn’t that just the same bucking question? “Again, does it matter? As long as Luffy think you’re okay, then it doesn’t really matter.”

Nami blinks, before letting out a sigh, “You’re just so goddamn close minded,” she shakes her head, before pointedly looking at him and saying, “You should be upset! I’m your friend, right? If someone said those words to me, I’ll be really upset, and you should be upset too, because that’s just how friendship works, am I right?”

Zoro looks even more confused by now. Sure, he’ll be upset if someone makes Nami upsets, but then why would she be upset when someone tells her that? “Why would you be upset?”

Nami stares, thoroughly dumbfounded. And then, at that exact moment, it dawns on her, “You… you don’t think I can feel?”

From the tenseness in her shoulders, Zoro knows that he’s threading on thin ice. But Zoro isn’t going to lie, nope, he’s never that kind of person. “No, I don’t.” he replies truthfully. And just like that, Nami looks as if someone has told her that someone she knows just died. Somehow, Zoro finds the urge to explain, “It just doesn’t make sense. You’re just a machine. How are you supposed to have feelings?”

The horrified look on Nami’s face morphs into something softer, akin to a combination of sadness and pity. “Luffy once told me… That my feelings get across to him, and that’s the only reason why he’s so sure that I love him. Back then, I was in doubt too. I’m an android, I wasn’t supposed to be able to fall in love, but I did, and Luffy said its real, and I believe in him.” She pauses as she stands up, getting ready to leave. “Seems like my feelings never reached you.”

Zoro stares, unable to get a word out of his mouth. Even after she left, he’s still having a hard time wrapping his mind around what she just told him. When Luffy declared that he’s dating Nami, Zoro simply chalked it up to one of Luffy’s many antics. Just leave it to Luffy to do something unusual, like dating an android, for an example, right? It just never occurred to Zoro that perhaps Luffy really is in love and that Nami feels the same way for Luffy too.

Huh. Androids with feelings. Just what is this world coming into?

He keeps thinking about Nami’s words as he walks the short distance from the café to the bureau. When he arrived, he still struggles to understand what Nami is trying to tell him about Sanji. Is she implying that Sanji has feelings to? If that’s the case, then Zoro most likely has hurt Sanji’s feelings, and isn’t that just fucking ridiculous, because no matter how much Zoro tries to look at it, Sanji and Nami are both androids, and they’re just not supposed to be able to feel.

What makes them so special, what sets them apart from the ever-so-cheerful-and-upbeat convenience store and front office androids? Do all those androids have feelings too? How about that female barista that Zoro just bought his coffee from? Does she has feelings too?

It’s just so fucking ridiculous, really, and so by the time Zoro reaches the bureau, he decides to just fuck it. He has no time to mull over that shit. He has a job, he needs to be a father, and most importantly, he needs to become stronger than Sanji, no matter how much sweat and blood it takes. Zoro has decided on that, and nothing is going to change his mind. Sanji and his feelings can fuck off.

“Morning, Zoro,” Sanji greets him the moment Zoro approaches his desk in the office space, the look on his face unreadable. No nicknames, Zoro notices, not that he cares. “I got an order from Marco this morning to help you out with your cases. I’d say, you’re pretty way behind,” Sanji meaningfully glances at the stack of files on Zoro’s desk.

“Yeah, I was just about to work on that,” Zoro half lied. He’ll work on that alright, through it’s probably not his main priority.

Sanji looks as if he’s fighting down the urge to roll his eyes, “I’ve sorted through the cases and took the liberty to take out the ones that went cold already. I’ll try to investigate them in my spare time, but these cases are better off ignored. Right now, there are more recent ones that you really should look into. I suggest we start with this one.” Sanji hands him over a case file.

Sanji’s speech pattern is stilted, it’s annoying. “What’s wrong with you? Finally breaking down or something?”

Immediately anger flashes across Sanji’s visible eye, but then it disappears as quickly as it came, and Sanji merely replies with a, “It’s nothing,” and then he turns his attention to the other case files.

Zoro decides not to push it. If this is what Sanji wants, then so be it. Besides, Zoro likes it better when this shitty android isn’t being so mouthy. He can definitely get used to this.

XXX

Days passed, nothing change. Sanji keeps his speech formal, doesn’t use anymore nicknames, and Zoro tells himself that he likes this better than before. They go out for missions, return successful, and then they part ways. Sanji will start on the report which is to be turned in to Marco, and Zoro will go to the gym, where he’ll work out until he drained himself out, and then crawl back home or to Robin, depending on his mood. Sometimes, when it’s just too late, or when the mission drags on until the early dawn, Zoro finds himself waking up to the janitor cleaning up the place.

So when Zoro wakes up one morning in the gym to the sight of Sanji sitting on the bench not far with what seems like a bento box and a thermos of warm drink by his side, Zoro can only drink in confusion. What is Sanji doing there? Why does it look like he has been waiting for quite a while?

“You really are an idiot,” Sanji says with a snort. “We’ve got a long day today, so you’d better eat something decent. And go take a bath, damnit. I brought you clean clothes so you won’t reek of sweat for the whole day.” He sounds annoyed, just like how he used to sound before they run around and try to pointedly ignore each other.

In his pre-coffee haze, Zoro merely grunts before going off to the shower with the fresh clothes in hand. And hey, Sanji even got him fresh underwear, but Zoro doesn’t really register that in his brain as he proceeds to the shower without so much as a ‘thanks’. When he steps out of the shower, Sanji silently hands him over the bento box, and Zoro reluctantly accepts it before plopping down next to the android on the bench.

Opening the bento box, he finds it packed with simple vegetables, omu rice, and a considerable portion of grilled chicken. What surprises him though is the way the food are delicately arranged to make it look much more appealing than it should. Zoro knows that Sanji, up to a certain degree, knows how to cook. Sanji helped out with Robin that one time in the kitchen, but Zoro wasn’t sure how much of it was Sanji’s cooking.

“I didn’t poison it, idiot,” Sanji snorts when he notices Zoro staring for a moment too long, “If I want you dead, I’d be more creative about it.”

Zoro snorts, but decides not to correct Sanji as he picks up the chopsticks and picks out the grilled chicken. He has to stop himself from moaning out in pleasure at the explosion of flavors in his mouth the moment he bites into it. This is just grilled chicken, right? How the fuck does it tastes this good?

Sanji smirks, obviously catching on quick, before he pours out a cup of coffee for Zoro from the thermos. He lets Zoro eats, watching in silence for a moment, before letting his eyes roam all over the place. Zoro can’t help but to wonder why Sanji bothers doing all this for him when they have been trying to do nothing else but to ignore each other for the past few days. Zoro would like to think that Sanji has an ulterior motive, but what can Sanji possibly wants from Zoro?

“Thanks,” Zoro says after he finishes his meal and exchange the bento box for the warm cup of coffee.

His words seems to catch Sanji by surprise for a moment, but Sanji quickly regains himself, making Zoro thinks that he might be imagining that. “You should know how to take better care of yourself, idiot,” Sanji says with a snort, “You’re only human, you need to eat and rest. Would do you a hell lot of good if you take a frickin’ bath once in a while too.”

Zoro snorts as he sips his coffee, “I can take care of myself just fine,” he murmurs.

Sanji rolls his eyes, “Right. Eating convenience store onigiri is just the way to live a healthy life, how can I possibly not know? Gotta make a note of that,” he replies, sarcasm leaking out of his every word.

Zoro snorts again but doesn’t say anything in response because, good lord, even Sanji’s coffee tastes better than the diluted residue he so often drinks from the bureau’s pantry.

From then on, it becomes some sort of routine for Sanji to bring Zoro food. When Zoro sleeps in the gym, Sanji wakes him up with breakfast. When they have a stakeout, Sanji brings him late night snacks. And during the occasional normal nine-to-five schedule, Sanji brings him lunch. The more it occurs, the more wary Zoro becomes. What if Sanji really does have an ulterior motive? What could Sanji possibly want from him? The question bothers him for days, but then one stake out night, Sanji calls him ‘marimo’ again, and Zoro finds himself stumped with the realization that maybe, just maybe, all Sanji wanted is for them to be the way they used to before.

Zoro then tries not to ignore him as much.

XXX

“That store is just selling cheap knok-offs. I bought a sword from them once, and it broke right in the middle of a battle,” Tashigi folds her arms and frowns, clearly not pleased by the memory. “It got some good reviews online, but their customers are most just hobbyists.”

Zoro nods in understanding, “Thanks for the info,” he says, “Do you have any good place in mind?”

As Tashigi tries to come up with a name, Sanji approaches them with a tray in hand, filled with a cup of tea and a slice of cake. “What are you two talking about?” Sanji asks Zoro as he sets out the tea and cake on Tashigi’s desk, “Enjoy, milady.”

“Thanks Sanji,” Tashigi chirps happily as she immediately digs into her snack.

“None of your business, dartbrow,” Zoro says with a snort. “And why am I not getting any of that?”

“Rude gorillas don’t get any.”

Zoro immediately pops a vein, “What did you just say, curly? You wanna start a fight?”

Sanji smirks, “I would, but then we all know how that’ll end up, so let’s just save ourselves the trouble.”

“Bastard! I’ve gotten stronger! This time, I’m not going to lose!”

Sanji rolls his eyes, “Sure, sure, whatever floats your boat, seaweed brain.”

Tashigi, who has been watching the exchange, decides to interrupt before Zoro can pop another vein and starts a fight in the middle of the office space, “I’ll get back to you about it later, Zoro. Right now, I can’t think up of any good place.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

Zoro and Sanji leave her shortly after, and decide to return their focus to the case they have been working on. Not long after they begin though, Zoro realizes that Sanji still has bandage on his cheek even though it has been about two weeks since they fought in the basement. If Zoro was any less of a swordsman, he’ll most likely assume that he has left an ugly scar that Sanji wants to desperately hide, but Zoro is the greatest swordsman in the world, and he knows that the cut he left on Sanji’s cheek wasn’t that deep. Did Sanji forget that he has put on a bandage there? That’s not likely, isn’t it?

“Hey,” Zoro decides to ask, “Why do you still have that thing on your face?”

Sanji glances up from the past reports that he has been reviewing, “Well, what do you think, seaweed brain?” he asks, not even bothering to hide the irritation in his voice. When Zoro merely frowns in both confusion and annoyance at that, Sanji sighs and explains, “I can’t heal like a human, the cut’s going to be there permanently.”

Zoro blinks, “Oh,” because, really, what else can he say? “Sorry about that,” he reluctantly adds after a short pause, because shit, he never really thought about it before.

This time, it’s Sanji’s turn to look up at Zoro and blink, surprise clear on his face, “Didn’t expect you to say that.”

Zoro snorts, because though he might be insensitive and stubborn, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know when to apologize. His relationship with Kuina wouldn’t last as long as it had if he didn’t know how to apologize.

Sanji looks troubled for a moment, but then he slowly says, “I’m sorry too… For the sword.”

Zoro quirks an eyebrow at that but decides not to pursue it, “Yeah.”

Silence falls over them, and for a moment, neither of them can focus to the documents that their eyes are trained upon. Finally, Zoro breaks the silence by asking, “Why don’t you… Umm… Why don’t you go get it fixed? I mean… you can do that, right? Go back, and get the white coats to fix it?”

Sanji clears his throat, “Well, not exactly,” he says, “I mean, I can, but then… I have to go through eval. They’ll want to know what went wrong, and then I have to go through testing again and… It’s not a pleasant process. I’d rather not go back, if it can be helped.” There’s a tint of fear in Sanji’s voice, and Zoro involuntarily remembers the things Sanji told him back then in the gym.

Zoro then nods in understanding, and they try not to make the atmosphere anymore awkward by seriously focusing on work this time. Of course, with the way Sanji’s words bounce around his head, Zoro can’t focus on his work even if his life depended on it. He doesn’t know why.

Later on when he looks back to his times with Sanji, he realizes that it’s at that exact moment when he starts to care for the android.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Sanji hums a quiet song as he wraps up the bento box and sets about to clean the kitchen. It’s six thirty already, in half an hour, he’ll have to leave for the bureau with Shanks. Unsurprisingly though, the president of the bureau is still lazily munching on his toast and sipping his coffee while he watches Sanji work. He’s still in pajamas, acting as if he has all the time in the world to go to the bureau, never mind the fact that the rush hour traffic is just hell.

Sanji is about to give him a piece of his mind when Shanks suddenly speaks up with a knowing smirk on his face, “So, how’s going with Zoro lately, hm? Does he enjoy your cooking?”

Sanji pauses at that because not only is the question a bit unexpected, Shanks inclination to think that Sanji is, in a way, romantically interested in Zoro, requires Sanji to think carefully about his answer. “Zoro’s fine,” he finally replies, “and yes, he likes my cooking. What else can you expect? My hands are crafted with finesse and precision in mind, of course cooking is a relatively mundane task.”

Shanks grins at that, “I’m glad to see you two getting along. Frankly, I was kinda worried when you came to me asking for a partner change. Marco’s got a name ready, but I don’t really think you’ll get along with that guy. Good thing I told you to give it a week, right?”

Sanji snorts, but doesn’t comment any further on that. Even though Sanji admits that he doesn’t regret making the first move to reconcile his relationship with the insensitive idiot, he will never admit Shanks gave a good advice. Nope, Sanji doesn’t want to encourage him (he’s still traumatized by that night when Shanks took him to the club).

“Zoro might be rude, but he’s a decent guy,” Shanks tells him again for the fourth time (yes, Sanji keeps precise count).

“I know, I know,” Sanji grumbles, not unhappily. Everyone around him keeps saying that, trying to convince him that Zoro isn’t that bad of a guy. Sanji knows that too, but it still doesn’t change the fact that Zoro thinks Sanji doesn’t suffer through traumas and bad memories. Sure, Sanji’s memory can be wiped away, he can be reborn as a new android free from all the nightmares and guilt, but how is that any different from killing himself?

Zoro doesn’t understand that, probably never will, and Sanji decides that it’s best to accept that fact and move on. What Zoro thinks of him doesn’t really matter that much anyway.

Shanks falls silent for a moment, smiling mischievously, before he suddenly perks up, as if just remembering something important, and tells Sanji, “My nephew is coming back in a few days.”

Sanji glances at the man over his shoulder, cocking his eyebrow at that, “You have a nephew?”

“Yup,” Shanks says with a proud grin, “Troublesome little brat, you’ll love him.”

Sanji snorts, “I’ll decide for myself.”

“No, you will trust me. Anyway, I want to hold a feast for him, and I was wondering if you can cook for me? I’ll be inviting some of his closest friends, and lemme tell you, they’re all big eaters. And I don’t mean the normal big eater you see on the telly, no, no, it’s even worse than that.”

Sanji can only imagine what kind of whale has that kind of appetite. “Alright,” he automatically agrees, not seeing any reason to turn down Shanks’ request. “But if you’re really going to ask me to cook a lot, I’m going to need your credit card.”

Shanks grins broadly, “Thanks a lot Sanji. I have a feeling that you and Luffy are gonna be best friends! Oh, and by the way, cook meat, lots of meat, okay?”

XXX

His name is Monkey D. Luffy, and he apparently works with the intel. That’s probably why Sanji can’t seem to get any more information on the guy aside from his name. Intel agents are strictly protected by the law for numerous reasons, one of them being to prevent their family members from being used as leverage against them. So, due to the lack of information, it’s only natural for Sanji to be surprised when he finds Zoro, Ace, Yuu, and Robin popping into the kitchen that evening.

“What’s cooking, dartbrow?” Zoro asks, peering into the pot of stew, while carrying Yuu in his arms.

“San-chan!” Yuu greets him with an ecstatic smile.

“Good evening, Sanji-kun,” Robin says with her usual gentle smile.

“Yo, Sanji! Didn’t know you’re living with Shanks! What’s the deal? You two related or something?” Ace asks while arching his brows suggestively.

The only thing Sanji can say in response is, “What are you people doing here?”

Ace laughs at that, “Shanks didn’t tell you that we’re coming?”

Robin chuckles sweetly as she replies, “We’re Luffy-san’s close friends.”

Oh, that makes sense. That also explains why Zoro has been trying to wrap up their work faster earlier that day. Sanji then turns his attention to Zoro, “Why didn’t you say anything? I thought you knew that I’m staying with Shanks.” He asks while returning his attention to the pot on the stove.

Zoro shrugs, “Didn’t think that you’ll be cooking. Usually, Shanks gets pizzas and burgers.”

Sanji can’t help but to snort at that. “Not on my watch.”

Ace shoots him an odd look, “What’s wrong with pizzas and burgers?”

“They’re unhealthy,” Sanji replies, sounding a little bit annoyed because gosh, how old are these people? They are supposed to be fucking adults, they should know better than to survive on junk food and carbonated drinks! For a moment, he’s tempted to give Ace the lecture he has given Shanks when he first found out that the red-haired man has been surviving on the wrong kind of food, but then decides that he can save that for later. Right now, he has a lot of cooking to do, and with Robin-chan here, of course he has to make a good impression!

More and more people pops into the kitchen as night approaches. There’s Usopp from the bureau, coming with his girlfriend, Kaya, in tow. Then there’s a small kid, nerdy looking and adorable, and he introduces himself as Chopper, a doctor-in-training. There’s also a tall, skinny guy with ridiculous afro, who introduces himself as Brook, the guitarist of a famous rock band.

And then last but not least, a huge guy in speedo pants and distasteful shirt with pineapple patterns, sporting metallic arms that looks like a weapon of mass destruction, and who walks into the kitchen and whistles, before saying to Sanji, “Looking sweet, bro! What’s your specs?”

Sanji, of course, nearly drops the dish he’s about to bring to the table at that, because how the fuck did he know?!

Noticing the look of pure disbelief and terror on Sanji’s face, the guy, Franky, laughs out loud, voice booming all over the place, before explaining, “I got eyes for androids, buddy. Part machine myself, you see. Saw the way you handled that knife. Super impressive bro!”

Sanji carefully nods, before he starts a background search with his spare processing power. What he finds surprised him nonetheless. “You’re the founder of the Flam Inc.?!” Which is really impressive because this man standing before him is the first man who has ever created a talking, walking, functioning android; he’s like the father of all androids, and god fucking damnit he’s other-worldly genius and he’s fucking wearing speedo pants like it’s the fucking right thing to wear in public! There’s a kid here, damnit!

Franky perks up, “You just did a background check on me? That’s SUPER! We have a lot to talk about tonight, bro!”

Rendered utterly speechless, Sanji mutely nods. He really doesn’t know what to feel about him. Awed, yes, horrified by his attitude towards common decency, also a yes.

Sanji is preparing dessert when the star the night finally walks through the front door, and Sanji peers around the kitchen doorway to catch a glimpse of this guy. Unexpectedly, Monkey D. Luffy is young, and not as big as Sanji imagined, and if Sanji hadn’t seen the grin on his face that resembles Shanks’, then he would have never thought that this guy might be the Luffy everyone has been singing praises about. There’s an air of childlike innocence about him, and for a moment, Sanji finds it hard to believe that he works in the intel. But then Sanji sees the scar on his face, and the one peering out over the collar of his t-shirt, and Sanji decides not to question it anymore. Luffy obviously has been through a lot more than Sanji can imagine.

An orange-blond woman walks in stride with Luffy, tall and graceful, carrying herself with the confidence of a queen. Ace has previously mentioned about Luffy having a girlfriend named Nami, so that must be her. And for the love of god, Sanji swears she’s simply perfection personified.

“Don’t drool, idiot,” Zoro says as he jabs him in the mid-section, one hand carrying a tired looking Yuu in his arms.

Sanji shoots him a glare, “Who’s drooling, marimo?”

Yuu lets out a small mirthful laugh, “Nami-chan is so pretty. When I grow up, I wanna be just like her.”

Zoro makes a face at that, “Yuu, no, not that w – ow!” Sanji smacks him on the back of his head before he can finish that sentence. “What the fu – Ouch! Stop that! What’s that for?!”

“Of course you can, dear,” Sanji says as he fondly pats Yuu’s hair, “And don’t listen to a word your father says, alright? He loves you, but he’s an idiot.”

Yuu smiles at Sanji, “Roger that, San-chan!”

Now, it’s Zoro’s turn to shoot a glare at Sanji as he says, “You don’t even know her.”

“I don’t, but I have eyes, marimo. That’s an angel, and you can’t convince me otherwise.”

Zoro gapes at him, but decides not to start an argument that can escalate into name-calling when Yuu is still in his arms. Still, that doesn’t stop him from remarking about Sanji’s eyebrows under his breath, which Sanji ignores because he doesn’t want to start a childish argument in front of Yuu too; it’s just bad role-modeling.

Luffy is an okay guy, Sanji decides as the night goes on. He’s a bit loud, and he pigs out on his food like he has never been taught how to use a fucking spoon, but he sings praises about Sanji’s cooking like no one has ever done before, and Sanji finds himself smiling as he tells the idiot to chew before swallowing. Shanks isn’t kidding when he told Sanji that the kid eats a lot. Luffy eats an impossibly large amount of food that makes Sanji looks up at the limit to how much a human’s stomach can stretch, and according to his findings, Luffy should have died like five pies ago. Sanji knows he should say something, but no one bats an eye when Luffy gulfs down another pie, so Sanji concludes that this is just the norm with Luffy. Still, he worries.

“Is it really safe, for him to eat that much?” Sanji finds himself asking Chopper, because the kid is a doctor, he should know better than Sanji, right?

“To be honest, I don’t really understand how it works with him too,” Chopper then shrugs, “But as far as I know, he’s mostly going to be okay.”

Well, that’s really helpful.

The hectic dinner slowly tapers down to a low buzz of conversation over tea and dessert. Sanji serves out cups of tea and cans of beer, always going back and forth to serve them drinks while cleaning up the mess he has made in the kitchen. As he washes the dishes, he can’t help but to feel pleased at himself for managing the whole thing well. He was a bit worried at first that he has bought too many ingredients, but then Luffy took care of that, so all in all, Sanji has done a great job.

He’s humming to himself when Nami walks into the kitchen. Immediately, Sanji turns around and serves her his best gentleman’s smile. “What can I help you with, Nami-chan?”

Nami startles, “How did you know I was there?”

Sanji is nonetheless confused. How did he know? That’s a very strange question to be asking when her footsteps are just that loud. “I heard you approaching, milady.”

Nami blinks, before she sits down by the island to talk to Sanji, “I was built with stealth in mind, people don’t usually hear me approaching. You must have a really good hearing, Sanji-kun.”

It’s now Sanji’s turn to become confused as he tries to figure out the implication behind Nami’s words. When his processor comes up with the only possible explanation, he decides to run a background check first before speakin out, just to be certain. When his background check yields no result, his suspicion is thus confirmed, “You’re… An android?”

Nami smiles at him, feline-like and dangerous, “Yes,” she pauses, letting the revelation sink in, before she asks, “for someone who’s staying with Shanks, you’re pretty smart… Do you have any problem with that?”

“Of course not!” Sanji immediately replies, “Why would I have any problem with that?”

Nami shrugs, “Some people do. They don’t really think androids like me should be going around having friends and a boyfriend. They think it’s all fake.”

Sanji can’t help but to snort at that as he remembers a certain green-haired bastard, “Tell me about it.”

Nami’s eyes widen at that, “Wait a minute…” she slowly sits up straighter, “You’re… Don’t tell me you’re…?”

“Unit number 3 of the Vinsmoke series, a pleasure to be your acquaintance, mademoiselle.”

It takes a moment for Nami to register that, before she groans and buries her face in her hands, “I should have known.” After a short pause, she looks up at Sanji again, this time the feline-like smile replaced with something more friendly, “Yes, I should have known. Zoro told me about you.”

“Oh, he did?” Sanji asks, not really sure what to make of that. So the marimo has been talking about him to his friends? So do they all know that Sanji is an android? It’s not that it’s a big secret or anything, but Sanji thinks it’s better if people don’t know that he can snap people’s neck in just less than ten seconds. “What… What did he say?”

Nami waves her hand, “talked to me about a problem he had with you. Said he didn’t understand why you’re all emotional and all that when you’re _just an android_. Oh, the nerves of that idiot. I swear if I was installed with self-defense software, I would have punched him in the face.”

Sanji can’t help but to chuckle at that, though he’s still embarrassed to know that Zoro has confided in her about that incident. “Insensitive bastard, isn’t he?”

Nami sighs, “He is, most of the time.” She then shrugs, “The only reason why I’m still seeing him is because Luffy likes him, a lot. Zoro’s loyal to Luffy, and pretty much to all his friends, but yeah, he’s a goddamn bastard.” She pauses, before deciding to change the topic, “So… You’re a combat android? What’s your main designation?”

Sanji stiffens at that, but decides that he really doesn’t want to hide anything from Nami, “Reconnaissance.”

Nami nods, “Mine’s Personal Assistant. Franky created me to deal with all his CEO problems while he spends his day molting in his workshop,” she chuckles before adding, “Don’t be fooled by the speedo. He’s actually a genius.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“If you need any help, just drop by the workshop anytime,” Nami offers, subtly glancing at the bandage on Sanji’s cheek.

“Thank you, mademoiselle, I’ll think about it.”

It’s not that Sanji doesn’t trust Franky or Nami, but Sanji still has some reservations about going to a workshop for a repair. He just doesn’t like the feeling of being jacked into a terminal and then having his internal programming poked and prodded. It’s just really intrusive, and Sanji would like to avoid that kind of situation if it can be helped.

Nami looks at him as if she knows, and she nods in understanding before she begins talking about the food that Sanji served up. Just like the others, she’s impressed by his cooking, and would like to learn how to make it herself.

That’s how Luffy finds them a few minutes later, apparently wanting some carbonated drink as Ace and the others set up the home-theater screen for couple of rounds of Mario kart.

“Sanji, your food is really amazing,” Luffy once again praises as Sanji dries his hands to get to the fridge. “I could get used to it.” He pauses for a moment, before adding with a broad grin on his face, “You’re a really nice guy, I like you a lot.”

Sanji quirks an eyebrow at that as he hands the can of soda to Luffy, “I’m not a nice guy, Luffy,” he says without even thinking twice about it. Not that it’s a lie anyway. “I try to be, but then I’m really not. Trust me.”

Luffy pops open the tab, the look on his face confused, “I don't get it. Why would you lie like that?” he gives Sanji one last odd look, before he turns around to walk out of the kitchen, apparently not wanting to miss the first round of the game.

Sanji is left to blink dumbly at his retreating figure. He then turns to face Nami, who merely smiles at him and says, “That’s just how he is.”

Luffy, he decides, is an oddball.

Still, his words stick with Sanji nonetheless.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for late update! Uni work is killing me now ^_^;;
> 
> Someone asked about beta, and I'm really sorry for my poor grammar. I don't think I can get one right now, because I don't wanna postpone updates any longer than necessary. But I'll try asking around if I have free time (which might as well translate to 'never', considering my uni workload right now *laughs and then cries* TT_TT).

Chapter 7

There is something oddly familiar with the sight of Sanji working in the kitchen. Throughout the night, Zoro finds his gaze drifting back to the android, trailing over the line of his shoulders, marveling at the swift movement of his hands. Something about the scene makes a warm feeling settles deep within his chest, akin to a contentment that he hasn’t felt in a long time. Zoro isn’t sure why he’s wrapped up in that emotion even though there’s just nothing that special about Sanji cooking in the kitchen.

A small nudge to his ribs prompts him ot tear his gaze away from Sanji’s back. He turns to look at Ace,  who’s studying him with a questioning look, “You’ve been staring for a while now,” he comments before chugging on his beer again.

Zoro blinks, not realizing that he has been doing that. One glance around the room tells him that no one else aside Ace has noticed. Everyone’s gaze is more or less fixed to the huge tv screen where a match of Mario kart between Luffy, Yuu, Franky, and Shanks is taking place. His daughter, as always, is leading the game, with Franky close behind, and with Shanks and Luffy trying to sabotage one another far behind. Robin might have noticed though, she’s a perceptive woman, but the way she’s contently watching over Yuu seems to hint otherwise.

Zoro returns his attention to Ace and shrugs, not even bothering to explain himself because hell, he doesn’t even know what has gotten into him. He tries to focus his attention to the game instead, when Ace nudges him once again. This time, he dangles his empty can of beer before Zoro’s face and says, “Be a doll and get me some more beer, will you?”

Zoro opens his mouth to tell him to go get it himself, but Ace has turned his attention to Luffy and Shanks, who are both wrestling on the couch now while still trying to play the game. He moves to separate them before Zoro can speak up, and Zoro is left to grumble inwardly as he makes his way to the kitchen.

Sanji, who is wiping the kitchen clean, looks up as Zoro steps inside, “Marimo,” he acknowledges with a small nod, “More beer?” he asks as he makes his way to the fridge.

Zoro nods, and then wordlessly sits down by the island. Sanji pulls out a few more cans, and sets it out before Zoro. The swordsman stares at them for a moment, before he decides to stay for a while to talk. He could use a short break from the rowdiness outside anyway. “You’re not joining us out there?”

Sanji quirks his eyebrow at that, “I might, in a little while. I’m almost done here.” He then returns to wiping the counter. Zoro watches him work, absently popping open a can as he does so. Outside, Zoro can hear Franky cheering loudly in victory, no doubt having won over Yuu in the match. Well, Yuu’s probably not going to take that one lying down. She inherits the stubbornness of both her mother and father combined after all.

After a while, Sanji finishes with cleaning up, and he returns his attention to Zoro, “Lively bunch of guys, huh? Are they always like this?”

Zoro nods, “Pretty much.” He sips his beer as he realizes that this is the first time they’re hanging out together for something that is not related to work. “Have a drink,” he offers the android, and Sanji takes him up on his offer and help himself to a can of beer.

A comfortable silence falls between them as they listen to Luffy and Ace arguing about which character to pick for the next round. After a while though, Sanji breaks the silence by saying, “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

A glance at the android tells him that this might be a serious question. “What is it?”

“Well,” Sanji pauses to sip his beer, before continuing, “I really don’t get you. Your relationship with Robin, to be exact. I mean, with everything that she has done for you and your daughter, how come you’re not dating her?”

Zoro slightly frowns. On any other day, he might throw back the question with some snarky remark - because really, why does he cares so much if Zoro doesn’t want to go out with Robin? – but the beer and the pleasant night just loosens him down a bit, and so Zoro finds himself falling silent as he tries to convey what’s truly on his mind. Sanji patiently waits, sipping his beer as he studies Zoro curiously.

“I just don’t see her that way,” Zoro finally replies. “Sure, I’m grateful for everything she has done for Yuu and I, but then I can’t look at her as anything other than an older sister. She’s… She’s not my type.”

Sanji tilts his head questioningly, “Not your type, huh?” he snorts, as if Zoro’s answer is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. Still, he doesn’t comment on that as he sips his beer again. After another short pause, Sanji asks again, “What’s your type anyway?”

Immediately, the image of his late wife resurfaces from the depth of his memories. Zoro smirks to himself as he let his head falls, trying to contain the overwhelming feeling of longing and loneliness that come with the stupid memories. “Strong, stubborn, fiery, bossy, kind…” he swallows down the lump forming in his throat, “Someone who can smack me on the back of my head when I’ve gone too far.” Zoro shakes his head and he chugs down his can of beer, shit, he doesn’t really want to talk about this.

“I see,” Sanji murmurs with a nod. From the looks on his face, it seems like Sanji’s aware that he just asked a sensitive question. “Sound perfect for you. Always knew that Robin-chan’s too pure for you.”

Zoro snorts, “Can you stop worshipping her like that? It’s fucking annoying.”

“Language,” Sanji snaps, “What if your daughter hears you, idiot? And besides, what the heck’s wrong with saying the truth? Robin-chan’s an angel, she’s pure, sweet and gentle. Only gorillas like you wouldn’t be able to see that.”

“Pure my ass,” Zoro murmurs, “You think someone can get as filthy rich as her by just selling history textbooks?”

Sanji chugs down his beer before crushing it in his hand, “What are you implying, you mosshead?”

Zoro shrugs innocently, “I dunno, dartbrow. What do you think?”

Sanji visibly fumes, “Don’t go around accusing Robin-chan of crimes if you haven’t got any prove!”

Zoro raises his hands, “Curly, I didn’t accuse her of anything. I’m just saying that it’s a bit suspicious, you know? I mean, come on, I know you’re still a newbie agent, but you’ve got to have at least that much common sense, right?”

Sanji isn’t keen on backing down. He keeps defending her honor like it’s his goddamn life purpose, and Zoro’s just getting way too much fun from riling up the android. Of course, things get a little awkward as Robin chooses to walk into the kitchen at that moment with a pleasant smile on her face. Zoro and Sanji pretend that they haven’t been arguing about her innocence as Sanji fetches her a glass of water, but then as she turns around to leave with said glass of water in her hand, she glances over her shoulder, throws them her best ‘I am a gentle and kindly lady who will not do any harm unto you’, and then proceeds to say, “Please don’t look into my background if you don’t want to die a painful death.”

“Y-yes Robin-chan,” Sanji pathetically stammers.

“Told you so,” Zoro mutters at him as soon as the woman left the kitchen.

“That doesn’t prove anything!”

Zoro has a feeling that Robin could be halfway burying Sanji underground and Sanji would still defend her honor.

Stupid, chivalrous android.

XXX

Zoro comes out of the bathroom to the sight of Sanji trying to coerce Yuu into letting go of the controller. From where he’s standing, he can’t really hear what Sanji is saying, but his lips is moving softly as he gently takes the controller from the small girl who’s only a few seconds away from nodding off. There is something about that sight that makes Zoro pause longer than he should, with a warm feeling spreading from his chest right down to the tip of his toes and fingers, something about the gentle way Sanji whispers to Yuu, the way his hands hauls her up to carry her to the spare bedroom upstairs, the way he holds her like she’s his very own little princess.

The android walks towards him with Yuu in his arms, “She’s really tired,” Sanji tells him. “I’ll bring her upstairs.”

His words snap his out of his trance, “Oh, right,” he murmurs, before falling in steps behind the android.

They walk away from the noises downstairs, reaching the quieter part of Shanks’ mansion. Noises from the living room play in the background, the laughter of the others bright and cheerful. The quietness prompts Zoro to think back to that moment a few seconds ago, when he finds himself standing breathless at the sight of Sanji holding his daughter. It just feels right, until it doesn’t. The alarm is ringing in his head, not loud, but it’s still there. There was something wrong with the scene. He doesn’t know what, and it unsettles him.

He watches as Sanji tucks Yuu gently into bed, pulling the blanket over her small body, and then placing a soft kiss on her forehead as his long, delicate fingers brush the hair out of her face. After he makes sure that Yuu is comfortable, he turns to Zoro, his visible eye glinting bright blue in the darkness of the room. He nods at Zoro to leave, but Zoro can only stand frozen by the door, because when he sees the inhuman glint in Sanji’s eye, he realizes why the alarm in his head is ringing.

“What’s wrong, marimo?” Sanji whispers at him when Zoro refuses to budge.

Sanji is a combat android; yet it’s getting easier and easier to forget that fact. How can Zoro see him that way though, when Sanji can show nothing else but kindness and compassion, pure human compassion, that even Zoro has a hard time expressing himself? Maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s the buzz of the party, maybe Zoro’s just tired, but at that moment, Zoro sort of wishes that Sanji can stay with them like this, as a part of their little group of friends, someone who Zoro can consider as friend, and not as an android that Zoro has to constantly watch over and be wary of. He’s tired of being wary of him when Sanji is just… Sanji.

Chatty, loud-mouthed, womanizing fool who cooks like a master chef; the idiot who’s secretly a workaholic, who knows how to write a fifty-page report under five seconds in his head, who can perfectly balance out Zoro’s shitty work attitude. He’s just Sanji, the android who can expresses his emotions better than most humans, who can laugh and smile at Luffy’s antiques, and who knows how to be gentle with Yuu.

So much emotions and thoughts run through his head. He can’t find the right words to express them all. Not that he thinks that Sanji should know, the guy’s ego is bloated enough as it is.

“Nothing,” Zoro lies after a lengthy pause, “You go ahead.”

Sanji studies him, his visible eye curious for a moment, but then he nods in understanding and sidesteps him to leave the room. Zoro watches his back as he walks away, wondering where all these shits ate coming from.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update ^_^;  
> Nex update might be delayed also, because exams are coming, and I need to prepare TT.TT  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter~!

Chapter 8

Zoro walks into the bureau next morning sleep deprived. The scent of cheap booze still lingers on him like a perfume, but he couldn’t care any less with given how his head is still throbbing from the booze and the lack of sleep. At least he still shows up in the bureau on time, unlike Ace, who decided that work can go fuck off and then sleep through his alarm.

Approaching his desk, he’s not surprised to find Sanji already waiting for him with a case file in hand; neat and elegant as usual, as if he hadn’t been drinking along with Zoro through the goddamn night. Sanji looks up from his reading when Zoro comes closer, a smirk creeps up onto his face when he sees the look on Zoro’s face.

“Lightweights,” Sanji says mockingly.

“Fuck you,” Zoro grumbles in return. How dare he says that when he probably can’t even get tipsy? The nerves of that idiot. With a groan, Zoro plops down on his seat, ready to just sleep on his desk for the rest of the day.

“You’re lucky we don’t have much to do today,” Sanji tells him. “I just turned in the report for our last mission this morning. So far, Marco hasn’t come with anything new for us.”

“What’s that you’re reading then?”

“I’m helping out Tashigi-chan with her investigation,” Sanji replies, a hint of pride and lovesickness in his voice. “She’s currently out to interview some witnesses, but she should be back by lunchtime.”

Zoro groans, again as he lets his head falls back, “Shouldn’t have bothered coming in then…” Ace was right, damnit. He should have just slept in. He’s so tempted to drive back home to get a couple more hours of sleep, but then the thought of facing the traffic again makes the idea less appealing. Zoro then decides to find someplace to sleep. One of the meeting rooms should do.

“Are you kidding? Look at these cases waiting for you to stop being a lazy bastard,” Sanji says as he gestures at the pile of files on Zoro’s desk. Admittedly, they have gotten considerably smaller since Sanji came to help him around, but then that doesn’t mean his desk is free of pending cases.

“I’ll do it,” Zoro says as he stands up, “After a nap.”

Sanji snorts, “Right, and then you’ll hit the gym after a nap. And then you’ll go for lunch after gym, and then back to napping after lunch. Seriously, why do they even keep you around here?”

Zoro shoots the android a look, “I can slice things down.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

This time, Zoro fully turns to him with a dangerous glare, “Curly, you looking for a fight?”

Sanji lets out a dramatic sigh, “Seriously?”

“I told you, I’ve gotten stronger,” Zoro says, his battle instinct suddenly taking over, excitement starts building up in his muscles at the prospect of a decent fight after a few weeks of boring investigation and stake outs. “I’ll hand you your ass this time.”

Sanji smirks, “You’re cute when you’re confident, mosshead.” That earns him a pause from Zoro. Sanji’s visible eye widens when he realizes what he just said, and immediately flails to cover it up, “I mean cute in a pathetic way, damnit!” he quickly diverts the conversation before it can get any weirder, “Fine, show me! Basement?”

Zoro, deciding to let that one slide, nods, “Let’s go.”

XXX

Even after working with Sanji for quite some time, Zoro still doesn’t know what Sanji’s shoes are made out of. He makes a mental note to ask him later in the back of his mind as he continues with his dual-sword assault at the smug bastard. No matter how precisely he swings, or how much force he puts into them, those goddamn shoes are always able to stop Zoro’s sharp swords with seemingly minimal effort. The android himself looks barely entertained by Zoro’s impressive moves. Sanji is on the defensive, opting not to counter attack, but his eyes are always closely watching every minute movement that Zoro made.

After a while of futilely assaulting the stupid android, Zoro stops and hisses in frustration, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Sanji shrugs before smirking, “Told you not to bother. I’m a highly integrated combat android. My senses are ten times better than the average human. I can predict your movements. And I’m obviously a whole lotta stronger,” he meaningfully glances at the wall, where the other half of Yuubashiri is still embedded. “So yeah, there’s really no point in doing this.”

Zoro glares at Sanji as he replies, “I’m not listening to that shit.” Yup, he’s not listening to that anymore. He has been agonizing over this shit for weeks, and he has had enough of the self-pity and self-loathing. “I’ve made up my mind. I will become stronger than you.”

Sanji smirks at that, “that’s some ambition you got there, marimo.”

Zoro raises his swords again, “not the first time someone told me that.” And without another word, he resumes his assaults at the android.

“You’re actually an amazing swordsman, Zoro,” Sanji comments as he continues dodging Zoro’s attacks. “But in the end, you’re only human. You have your limitations.”

“Shut up,” Zoro snaps at him, “I’ll decide that for myself!”

Sanji deliberately sighs, but he doesn’t comment any further as he lets Zoro continues. The fight continues uninterrupted for the next few hours, and in the end, it’s Zoro who collapses on his back out of exhaustion.

“Stupid marimo,” Zoro hears the android murmurs before he drifts off to oblivion.

XXX

When Zoro opens his eye again, he finds himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Quickly, he tries to sit up and figure out where the hell he is, when he finds out that all the muscles in his body are as sore as fuck. Seriously, when was the last time his muscles felt this worn out? He groans as he looks about, taking a moment to realize that he’s apparently In the infirmary. How the fuck did he gets there in the first place? Last time he remembered, he was –

Oh fuck, right. He was fighting with Sanji in the basement. He was pushing himself hard, and the shitty android was looking as unimpressed as shit, and then Zoro sorta remembered passing out and giving up because fuck, he was so goddamn tired.

“Good, I was starting to think you might never wake up.”

Zoro doesn’t need to turn his head to know that Sanji is sitting by the bed. With another softer groan, he falls back onto the bed and closes his eye, hoping to get a few more hours of the blissful sleep. He doesn’t want to think about the embarrassing fact that he has lost, again, to the dartbrow idiot.

“Oh, come on. You’ve been asleep for ten fucking hours. Get up already, you dumbass! Marco got us a new case to work on while you’re out.”

“Fucking tired,” Zoro murmurs sleepily, but hell, with the way Sanji’s nagging, there’s just no way he can go back to sleep. He opens his eye again and looks at the blonde bastard sitting impatiently next to his bed. With a loud sigh, he tries to sit up again, this time the soreness more manageable. Sanji mutely hands him a glass of water, which he gratefully drinks.

“Come on, we’re tracking down a dealer tonight,” Sanji says as he gets up from his seat. “One of our informants got news about a deal taking place in the docks in three more hours. Get your ass moving, we need to get there and check out the place first.”

Zoro murmurs under his breath about how dartbrows don’t have the right to boss him around, but he’s still fuzzy as hell, and Sanji seems to be eager to get moving already. Groggily, Zoro swings his leg off the bed and stands up. He looks about the room to look for his swords, and find them lined up against the wall next to his bed. He reaches out for them, but then blinks when he realizes that there are three swords there instead of two.

Carefully, he picks up Wadou and Sandai Kitetsu, slides them into place at his waist, before tentatively reaching out for the third, black sword. It’s not his, he knows, but there’s something about the sword that’s calling out to him. The moment he wraps his fingers around the sword, he feels a powerful, ominous aura surging up through his hand and right to his core. It’s considerably heavier than Yuubashiri, and when he unsheathes it to inspect the balde, he finds his reflection on the surface of a dark metal. Cursed, he mentally notes, but powerful. Zoro involuntarily swallows.

“I take it that you like it?”

Turning around, Zoro finds the android staring at him with inquisitive eyes. Of course, it just has to be Sanji. “Where did you find this sword?”

“Got it from the facility. I was designed to be able to wield swords too, but,” Sanji nonchalantly shrugs, “Don’t really like the thing. It’s troublesome to carry around. So I’ve been keeping it in my room for a while. Since you’re missing one sword, and I happen to have one that I’m not using, I just thought that it’ll be better to give it to you.” Sanji pauses, before adding, “Its name is Shusui. It’s the national treasure of an ancient civilization in the east.”

“Shusui,” Zoro repeats the name as he looks down at the sword in awe. Fuck, he’s just so fucking captivated already that the thought of shoving the sword back to Sanji and telling the idiot that Roronoa fucking Zoro doesn’t need a fucking charity just doesn’t cross his mind at all.

Sanji smiles when he sees the look on Zoro’s face, “I knew you’d like it.”

Zoro weakly nods, “Thanks,” he finds himself murmuring. But then he remembers that nothing good in life comes for free. Warily, he looks at Sanji, “What do –“

And before Zoro can finish asking that question, Sanji immediately cuts in, “I’m not giving it away to you, mosshead. I’m just lending it to you. Give it back once you can defeat me.”

Before Zoro can say anything else, Sanji turns around and begins talking about how they need to get moving fast to get a good spot. Mutely, Zoro slides the new addition into the slot on his belt. It’s heavy, but it fits perfectly, as if it belongs there all along. Zoro smiles as he strokes the hilt, silently promising himself that he’s not going to make Sanji wait for long.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, I know I said that I have exams, but then I can't really stop myself from writing this out. Writing helps release the stress ^_^;
> 
> I hope you guys like this chapter! Happy reading~!

Chapter 9

Sanji’s morning starts at five o’clock sharp, exactly four hours after he has entered his sleep mode. In the darkness of the room that Shanks has provided for him, Sanji opens his eyes and immediately sits up as he starts up the various processes required to function properly. He does a system check, tries to see if there’s anything working out of order, and when he’s satisfied, he swings his leg off the bed to start working for the day.

First thing of order is to get dressed. It’s important for him to look neat and flawless; after all, he is the pinnacle of technological development, it’s a given that he should dress the part. After choosing one out of the numerous dress shirts that the facility has so graciously provided him, he put on his black trousers, picks out an orange tie to match his shirt, then he collects the black double-breasted suit waiting for him on the back of a chair.

Shanks won’t be up for another hour or so, but Sanji needs to start preparing for breakfast, as per their agreement when Sanji first stepped into this place. Waffles for today’s breakfast, he decides as he makes his way to the kitchen downstairs, with honey and a handful of berries. Katsudon for lunch, and then some onigiri to prepare for Zoro. Tashigi said yesterday that she’s craving for some green tea mochi, he definitely has to work on that too. So much to do, so much to do.

At six forty eight, Shanks walks out of his room, still in pajamas and bed hair, the look on his face half dead. Sanji offered him coffee, and he absently nurses the cup in his hands as he opens his tablet for early news reading.

“What are we having for breakfast?” Shanks asks after he becomes aware enough.

“Waffles,” Sanji replies.

They fall into silence, before suddenly, Luffy appears in the kitchen, face fresh and smiling, a stark contrast to his uncle. He greets Sanji with his loud voice, before sitting next to Shanks and asking about what Sanji is cooking. Cooking for Luffy, Sanji has learned, is a nightmare; the guy eats like an elephant, and he sneaks about for more when Sanji least expects it. Worse, Luffy knows how to be sneaky, probably got it from years working in the intel. Sanji needs to be extra vigilant with Luffy around now.

“Is that for Zoro? Can I try?” Luffy asks as he hungrily eye the onigiri.

“Touch that, and I’ll dice you,” Sanji threatens with his knife.

Knowing that it’s not really worth the trouble, Luffy pouts, before he returns to shovelling waffles into his mouth. He swallows without chewing thoroughly, before commenting again, “Zoro is so lucky to be your favorite.”

Sanji nearly drops his knife at that, because Zoro? His favorite? That is just so far removed from the truth. If he has to list out all the people that he likes, then Zoro is most definitely not going to be on the top of the list, and even if he removes all the women from that list, Zoro’s still not going to be the first. The guy’s an idiot, Sanji probably has to meditate first to be able to come up with something remotely decent to say about that guy.

Sanji snorts, “My favorite? Yeah, right.”

“If he’s not, why are you always making him onigiri?” Luffy asks, mouth stuffed.

“that’s because -” Sanji abruptly stops, because he doesn’t really know what to say to that. Which is really strange. He’s a highly advanced android, equipped with cutting-edge artificial intelligence. it’s almost impossible for him to be rendered speechless, but here he is now, unable to finish off his sentence. Huh, weird. Sanji then chooses to shrug and says, “he works hard.”

“That’s not fair, I also work hard,” Shanks whines, “but you never make me special snacks.”

“Can you even consider signing papers as work?” Sanji argues, “And don’t give me crap about you reading. I know you don’t read them, Marco does it all the time.”

Shanks grins sheepishly at that, and tries to cover it up by saying that he does other stuffs too, but Sanji knows better. He has observed the surveillance records in Shanks office, and finds out what Shanks does all day long in there. Suffice to say, Sanji is not impressed with the number of cat videos, sappy romantic tv series, and perverted content that the President of the bureau watches every single day.

After breakfast has been served and the cleaned away, Sanji goes about wrapping up the lunches and snacks as Shanks goes to prepare himself for work. Luffy stays behind to drink his milk, and that’s when Sanji decides to ask, “What do you do when Shanks and I are off to work?” Sanji knows that it’s not really his problem what Luffy does during the day, but Sanji is a reconnaissance android, his AI is set to be curious in nature, and the lack of surveillance camera in the house isn’t really helping him find out without having to resort to this direct method.

“Visiting my friends, since I don’t have any work for now,” he replies, “today, I think I’m gonna see my friends in the bureau. That means I’m coming with you guys.”

Sanji doesn’t bother raising an eyebrow at the prospect of Luffy just waltzing into the bureau without any clearance because Luffy is an intel, and regardless of their rank, those people gets access to pretty much everywhere. It’s a bit enviable, especially considering that Sanji has to repeatedly turn in request forms in order to secure warrants or access to a particular information. Of course, he can always hack into the main server and tamper the information to his liking, but then that would be illegal, and Sanji’s AI isn’t really suited for the task of covering digital trails. Out of all the five androids in the Vinsmoke series, Reiju and Niji are more suited for that task.

“Ah, I’ve got a particularly interesting case from a friend of mine this morning,” Shanks mentions on their way to the bureau. “It’s pretty urgent too. I think you and Zoro should work on this asap, Sanji.”

Sanji nods, “Send in the details then, and I’ll immediately process it.”

“Sending it right now,” Shanks says as he taps on his tablet to send the digital version of the case file to Sanji’s email server.

Once the email has been received, Sanji opens and then processes it in his head, digesting the facts and the requirements in almost an instant. The case comes from a researcher working in a combat android development facility abroad just this morning. Two recently developed combat androids were stolen while they were being shipped to the northern region for further testing. It has been suspected that the interception took place in their region, and Sanji’s mission is to, at the very least, trace the whereabouts of the androids.

“I don’t understand,” Sanji asks after he has gone through all the details, “This seems to be a very urgent mission. Something like this is more suited for a senior agent. Don’t get me wrong, I can totally handle this with one hand tied behind my back, but the past few weeks, you guys have been giving me nothing but small cases. So, what gives?”

“Ace is working for Marco now for an important investigation, and Tashigi is also buried with her own missions,” Shanks replies, “There are others, but then I trust you and Zoro more. You both make a wonderful team.”

Sanji doesn’t know whether or not he should feel flattered about that.

“Hey, since you’re here, why don’t you help them out, brat?” Shanks asks as he jabs Luffy’s ribs playfully.

Luffy grins and chuckles at that, “That’s a great idea! And I was getting bored too!”

Sanji wonders if this mission is really that important, given how Shanks just throws Luffy into the team without even so much as a thought. “Is that even allowed? Luffy doesn’t even work in the bureau,” he finds it necessary to point out.

“Yeah, but he’s my nephew,” Shanks replies, tone indicating that it’s like the most obvious reason in the whole world, and that something must be wrong with Sanji for not catching that.

Sanji opens his mouth to argue, but then audibly closes it again as he shakes his head. Nevermind. It’s futile to argue with Shanks. The man will always win with his weird logic. Besides, having Luffy to work with them might not be such a bad idea, maybe he can help.

XXX

it’s a long drive up to the port located on the northern area, and Sanji has lost count the number of times he has been tempted to throw the hyperactive Luffy out of the window. Not only has he wolfed down the lunch and snacks that Sanji has prepared, he just won’t stay still, always shifting around and sticking his head out of the window. The marimo makes it worse by arguing with him on the turns to take and the directions to go.

“No, no, I told you we need to turn right! Right, marimo, right!” Sanji is practically screeching by now because gods, how can someone not know the difference between left and right? He’s supposed to get used to this by now, after all they have been working together for quite some time, and it’s always Zoro driving them from one place to another. Still, the green monkey is just always so goddamn stubborn and Sanji doesn’t understand why this idiot can’t just follow his directions for once. Sanji says one thing, and the seaweed brain just has to go do the fucking opposite. Fucking hell.

“Shut up, we can take another turn up ahead, same thing,” Zoro grumbles.

“It’s not the same thing,” Sanji yells, feeling his processor starting to overheat already. With a groan, he slumps back on his seat, willing himself not to get so riled up. It’s a bit unusual for his processor to be overheated so easily though, usually it takes a prolonged session of verbal abuse before Sanji’s processor can even begin to warm up. Something’s not right, and Sanji doesn’t need to think hard to know what’s up. He’s long overdue for a periodic maintenance after all. Gods, he really wish it doesn’t have to come down to this, maintenance means returning to the facility, damnit.

“You okay?” Zoro asks, alarmed by the way Sanji suddenly falls silent.

“Yeah,” Sanji replies, voice soft, a stark contrast to his previous yelling,  “Just a bit tired.” Zoro side eyed him as of Sanji has grown another head. Sanji knows it’s because it’s very unlike him to admit that he’s tired. “My processor is overheating fast today,” he tries to explain, “No biggie, I can still function perfectly fine, just... follow my directions, okay? Arguing with you like this all the damn time isn’t doing my processor any good.”

There’s a short pause, before Zoro nods and says, “Alright.”

Miraculously, the marimo doesn’t try to argue with him any further, and after two more hours of long ride, they finally reach the warehouse where the androids were supposed to be kept before being sent to the north.

XXX

From the warehouse, tracking down the thieves who took away the containers in the darkness of the night is a relatively simple task. Sanji has to only gain access to a satellite and then tracks down the movements of those goons. The results lead them to an illegal private laboratory, hidden deep within lush, green forest. They’re developing combat androids too, Sanji finds out, and they plan on selling their results to shady organizations. There’s no doubt that they need to be stopped.

Of course, their plan of sneaking around to gather enough evidence to warrant a bust doesn’t work out that well, because one, Luffy is with them, and two, Luffy likes to raise trouble. Sanji thought that letting the guy out of his sight is a safe idea. They need to cover more grounds, and Luffy’s intel and all that shit, so he should be able to hold up just fine on his own, but then the alarm goes off two minutes after they parted ways, and Sanji can only sigh. He should have known, really.

“How are you even in the fucking intel?” Sanji asks as they finally regroup to come up with a new plan of attack

Luffy merely grins at that, leaving that question hanging and Sanji itching to find out. Maybe he’ll hack into the intel database later.

“Our main mission is to get the androids, right?” Zoro says, pulling Sanji’s attention back to their current predicament, “I say we grab them and go.”

Sanji, for once, agrees with the seaweed brain, “Luffy, go get the car and wait for us by the main road. Zoro and I will try to find the androids and get them out of here.”

Planning is really the easy part. Execution is a much messier process because one, the idiots running the place think that they’d rather unleash experimental androids on them instead of just giving up, and two, said experimental androids are not to be taken lightly.

Unit A12 and O6 are designed to work as a pair, with O6 analyzing the field and A12 delivering dual-swords assaults. A12 is fast and responsive, and supported by O6’s directions, he’s practically capable of keeping Zoro and Sanji at bay. It doesn’t help that O6 is also shooting at them with a laser gun.

“Fuck!” Sanji curses as his kick misses unit A12, again, “Would you stay fucking still?!” he finds himself growling out of frustration. He doesn’t like this, his kicks keep missing, gods, he really need to go for maintenance after this shit is over. He then somersaults at the right time in order to avoid O6’s laser gun.

Frustrated, Sanji pulls out two knives that he always have ready inside the compartment of his right arm, and sends them flying towards O6. The flying knives catches her by surprise, and they embed deep into her right shoulder and the base of her neck, much like Sanji has intended. She cries out and drops onto her knees, effectively letting go of the troublesome gun.

“Anna!” unit A12 gasps in surprise, before turning his green, murderous glare at Sanji.

Worry, and then anger; it doesn’t slip Sanji’s observation that A12 is exhibiting those emotions. Sanji then comes to the painful realization that they too are advanced enough to experience and express emotions, that they’re not much different from him, yet here he is, destroying them like they're mere machines to be taken down. Killing them like they don't mean a thing. He tries to tell himself that this is a mission, that what he’s doing is for a greater good, but it still doesn’t stop him from feeling that this is wrong, wrong, _wrong_. It feels as wrong as killing all those humans, as wrong as that one time when fucking Niji hacked into his system and goes to strangle Zeff. It makes his processors go haywire with guilt, and fuck, he doesn’t need it right now.

He’s jarred from his thoughts when Zoro calls out for his name. Apparently, while he’s lost in thought, A12 has overpowered Zoro, sent him flying back to the far end of the room, before grabbing O6 and running out of the room, pass the oblivious Sanji.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?! You let them get away!” Zoro yells at him as he grabs a fistful of Sanji’s shirt.

“We’ll get them,” Sanji says as he wrenches Zoro’s hand off, uncharacteristically avoiding Zoro’s gaze, “Come on.”

Zoro looks as if he still wants to grill Sanji about the matter, but their target is escaping, and they have to stop them. And so he nods in a silent agreement to let the matter rest for now, before they both run after the androids.

XXX

Sanji looks down at the unmoving remains of A12 by his feet, mind curiously void of any thoughts. It was a troublesome chase, with Zoro barely able to keep up given his human stamina, and with Sanji always unconsciously pulling back his kicks, but A12 without O6’s direction makes bad decisions, so it’s a lot simpler for Sanji to kick him down, and for Zoro to drive his swords through the android’s head, effectively breaking him.

It feels painful to watch, like Zoro has driven the swords right through Sanji’s head too, but Sanji tries not to think too much about it as he turns to face O6, who has fallen onto her knees at the sight of the brutal murder, face painfully void of any expression. A moment later though, tears roll down the side of her face, and she brokenly whispers the codename of unit A12.

“Jack… Jack...”

Sanji feels like his processor is ready to break down. it's the guilt, he realizes, and though he can simply turn off his emotional functions, he finds himself unwilling to do so. That'll be cowardly of him; to choose not to feel and not to deal with the guilt that comes with the fact that _he did this to her,_ to _them_.

Zoro flinches, visibly disturbed by this show of human emotion, but he regains his composure fast, and soon, he’s walking towards O6, jaw tight, shoulders tense, swords ready by his side..

“Zoro, wait,” Sanji says, stepping up to stop Zoro from advancing any further.

Zoro glances at him, “What?”

Sanji studies O6 for a moment, before he gently takes Shusui from Zoro’s hand, and says, “Let me do it.”

Sanji doesn’t blink as he thrusts the black sword through her, doesn’t look away as she shudders in pain, and as her body goes limp. She falls as Sanji pulls the sword out, but he catches her before she can hit the ground.

”I’m sorry,” Sanji whispers softly into her ear, “I’m sorry.”

Sanji knows that Zoro can see the tears rolling down his cheeks, but Zoro does not call out on it. Instead, he silently puts back his swords to where they belong and says nothing as he observes the darkening sky.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The drive back to the bureau is mostly silent, save for Luffy’s snoring on the back seat. Occasionally, Sanji would speak up to point out the right direction, and Zoro would wordlessly comply. They make one stop at a burger joint for a quick dinner, but Sanji has chosen to remain in the car while Zoro and Luffy order something, and though Zoro is worried, he lets the android stays in the car.

There’s no mistaking that Sanji is still dealing with the guilt of ‘killing’ O6 and A12. Those two androids have shown human emotions genuine enough to make even Zoro flinched in discomfort, so he can imagine what kind of impact it would have on someone as sensitive as Sanji.

It’s midnight by the time they reach the bureau to deliver the androids. The place is mostly empty, save for some poor suckers stuck with working overtime. They hand the androids over to the scientists in reprogramming division to be safely kept until they’re due to be returned, before they make their way to Shanks office. Shanks has gone home for the day, but Marco is there, still reading over some papers when they walk in. Zoro and Sanji report back to him, and Marco praises them for the good work, before telling them to go home and rest.

“You know it’s not your fault, right?” Zoro finds himself saying on the way to Shanks place. He can’t really help it, the silence is killing him, and he thinks Sanji is being an enormous idiot for blaming himself over something like this. “They attacked us first. We wouldn’t have to do what we did if only they were smart enough to cooperate.”

Sanji doesn’t say anything for a moment, and just when Zoro is about to pick up a fight by outright calling him an idiot, he speaks up, “I… I know that already, Zoro. It’s just that…” he trails off, sounding unsure whether or not to proceed. “It’s a bit jarring, I guess… They’re just like me, you know. I don’t know if you notice, but they… They’re capable of expressing and feeling emotions, and that’s… I just feel like…”

“You’re empathizing with them.” It doesn’t sound like a guess as much as it sounds like a factual statement.

Sanji swallows, nods, and once again, they fall silent.

Zoro understands why Sanji is emphasizing; after all, the androids did show some genuine emotions that took even Zoro by surprise. Still, Zoro doesn’t understand why Sanji is so upset about it. Zoro tries to formulate the right question, but then, as if reading his mind, Sanji suddenly continues.

“It’s not hard, to imagine myself in their place,” Sanji’s words are much softer this time. “I’m a combat android too, one of these days… it would be me down there, obediently waiting for the mercy of your sword.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not going to kill you,” Zoro finds himself snapping, because gods, Zoro can do many things, but killing his friend is not one of them. What kind of cold-blooded murderer did Sanji think he is?

“Maybe it won’t be you, maybe it’ll be someone else,” Sanji replies, “Either way, there will come a time when I have to be destroyed like that. And I…I…” he audibly clamps his mouth shut, as if finding the thoughts in his own head ridiculous.

“I what?” Zoro urges, impatiently, because somehow, he has a feeling that Sanji would just bottle everything up until he couldn’t take it anymore and have a meltdown or something.

“It’s nothing.”

“Try that one more fucking time, Sanji,” he growls, letting his threat known.

Sanji pauses shortly, before relenting, “It’s ridiculous. You’ll probably laugh at me for being so stupid.” When Zoro levels him with his best side glare, and Sanji quietly chuckles, before saying, in a voice barely above a whisper, “I want to stay with you, and everyone else.”

Zoro feels his heart squeezes painfully, and he has no idea why. Perhaps it’s the melancholic look on Sanji’s face, perhaps it’s the raw emotions hinted in his voice, whichever it is, Zoro suddenly yearns to tell Sanji that he has nothing to be afraid of because Zoro’s there, and he’ll do everything in his power to protect Sanji. Those words never truly leave Zoro’s mouth though, because no matter how much he wants to comfort Sanji, he just can’t blurt out blatant lies. After all, in the grand scheme of things, Zoro is just an agent of a small bureau, insignificant compared to those who _own_ Sanji and control his destiny.

“I see…” is all Zoro can manage after a long pause.

Zoro tightens his grip on the steering wheel, frustration suddenly surging through his veins. But whether that frustration is directed at those people for treating Sanji like a plaything, or at his own incapability to change a damn thing, he can’t tell for sure.

“Is it impossible… For me to stay…?” Sanji asks, voice quieter this time, but Zoro doesn’t miss the hint of desperation there.

And Zoro, not knowing what else to say but knowing that he has to say something, decides to just be fucking honest because fuck, he knows Sanji needs to hear this right now. “I want you to stay.”

Another moment of silence ensues, and when Zoro is starting to fear that he has said something wrong, he glances towards Sanji, and finds that the android is studying him, a tender look on his face, a small smile gracing his lips, gratitude in his eyes, yet there’s something else in there that Zoro can’t quiet read.

The conversation drops, and no more word is exchanged until they reached Shanks mansion.

“Thanks for the ride, Zoro. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Sanji says as he carries Luffy on his back. And without another word, he turns around and walks inside, leaving Zoro to wrestle with his own thoughts.

That night, he dreams of driving his sword through Sanji’s head.

In his dream, Sanji is on his knees, waiting, unmoving, as if he has resigned to his fate. Zoro dreams of approaching that Sanji, sword in his hand, denial loud in his head, but he can’t stop himself as he raises his sword and drives it through Sanji’s head. Tears, Sanji whispering his name like a prayer, and then… And then…

Zoro wakes up with a jolt, heart racing, and eyes wide open even before he registers that it’s all just a nightmare.

XXX

Shanks tell him to take the day off since Zoro and Sanji have done a remarkable job the other day. Zoro decides to hit the gym and then pick up his daughter later on from kindergarten. Still, as he works out through the morning in the local gym, his mind keeps reeling back to the nightmare he has last night. A small part of him knows that the scenario is not entirely improbable, considering what Sanji truly is. Yet his stomach clenches at the prospect of having to drive his sword through one of his friends.

He supposed, therein lies his true problem; he has started referring to Sanji as his ‘friend’ in his head. It’s not an illogical course of action, after all, they have been spending time together, and Sanji is a decent guy. But taking into consideration the fact that Zoro is duty-bound to stop Sanji if anything is to go wrong with him, then that makes things a tad bit complicated.

Zoro doesn’t think he can stop Sanji.

And it’s not because only because of the glaringly obvious fact that Sanji is stronger than him, but it’s also because he doesn’t think he won’t hesitate given the chance to permanently end him.

He ponders on this problem throughout the day, and his sober mood doesn’t slip through Robin’s keen observation. Yuu is busy drawing when Robin approaches him, a knowing smile on her face, “Something is troubling you, I notice. Do you want to talk about it?”

Zoro glances at his daughter, and finds her completely lost in her won world. He returns his attention back to Robin and let out a small sigh. The question ha been sitting in his head since this morning, and even though Robin may not be able to understand his problem, it’ll still be nice if he can talk to someone about his silemma. “It’s… Just a problem, at work… See, I was…. Assigned to watch out for this guy, make sure he doesn’t do anything dangerous, but lately…” he pauses, struggling to find thar right words that won’t reveal too much about who this person is, though knowing Robin, she’ll probably figure it out by the time he finishes his sentence. So he decides to just fuck it and tell her the truth.

His explanation is brief, but by the time he’s done, Robin has a grim look on her face that all but says her opinion on the matter. Despite that, he doesn’t expect her to say, “Sanji is our friend.”

It’s surprising to hear her say that, because all these times, Zoro thought he’s the only one who regards the android as such. Sanji just doesn’t hang out with the others as often as he does to warrant that kind of treatment from them. So how is it possible for Robin, who probably has been around Sanji for a grand total of only two times, to label Sanji as her friend too?

“Why do you say that?” Zoro asks her, “You don’t know him that well.”

“Because he’s your friend,” Robin says, and after a thoughtful pause, she adds, “And also Luffy’s. Luffy won’t stop talking about Sanji. That’s just how much he likes Sanji. And if you and Luffy think of him as a friend, then he’s also our friend. Isn’t that how things always work for us?”

Zoro slowly nods, once again reminded about the peculiar nature of the little group of friends. It was like that too when he first introduces Kuina to them, and when Usopp introduces Kaya, and also when Luffy introduces Nami, Franky, Brook, and Chopper. Everyone readily accepts a new addition to the little group of friends, never really questioning their backgrounds or intentions.

“What should I do…?” Zoro finds himself asking, voice barely above a whisper, as if he’s afraid. And yeah, truth to be told, he’s afraid of what Robin is going to say. What is she tells him to just go ahead with it? Zoro doesn’t think he can bear to hear that coming from her. She’s the wise one in their group, the one who give out good advices. If she thinks that Zoro should kill Sanji, then…

“I can’t tell you what to do. It’s something you have to decide for yourself,” Robin replies. “All that I can say is that… We’re all going to be really upset if anything is to happen to Sanji. All of us. Even Yuu-chan.” And as she says this, she turns her gaze at the little girl drawing on the floor nearby.

Yuu is drawing them. All of them. There’s Luffy with his favorite straw hat. Franky with his ridiculously large biceps. Robin with his dark hair. Nami with her elegant curls. Usopp with his long nose. Brook with his violin. Chopper in his white coat that he often forgets to take off. Him with his green hair. And a certain stupid blonde android with his curling eyebrow.

Zoro is more at a loss now than before.

And that night, he dreams of killing Sanji again.

XXX

The next morning comes around, and when Zoro steps into the open office space, he finds Sanji already waiting for him with a case file in hand, as usual. Impeccably dressed, with not even a hair out of place, and when he turns to look at Zoro, he smiles at him as if nothing has happened two days ago. He approaches Zoro and begins talking about their new case.

Zoro can’t focus even if his life depended on it though. His thoughts keep drifting off to the dream he has last night. With Sanji standing next to him now, the terror his nightmares bring to him becomes more real, because Sanji is right fucking there next to him and his swords are well within reach. Just one move, a quick draw of his sword, and then…

“Oi, marimo, are you listening to me?!” Sanji asks, sounding crossed and annoyed.

Zoro blinks, before he tries to shake off that image from his head. No, no, no. Sanji is strong. Sanji can stop him. And besides, there’s just no way he could do it. No fucking way.

“Yeah, I am,” Zoro grumbles in response.

“Bastard, you’re obviously not listening. What the hell are you thinking about?” Sanji asks, and though he mostly sound irritated, Zoro doesn’t miss the hint of concern in his voice.

“It’s nothing dartbrow.” Zoro lies, and of course he has to lie, because how the fuck is he supposed to tell Sanji that he has been dreaming of killing him for two nights in a row? He urges Sanji to continue explaining the case to him, and though Sanji looks skeptical for a moment, he doesn’t push for it.

XXX

The nightmare continues to haunt him.

It comes back to him every once in a while, on peaceful nights when Zoro is starting to forget about his duty over Sanji. It cruelly jerks him awake, shaking him to his bones, mercilessly reminding him of the obligation that hangs over his head. It tortures his conscience as he faces Sanji the next day; Sanji who is bright and kind and most certainly doesn’t dream of killing Zoro in his sleep.

Sanji, who probably never even have to question himself if he actually does want to kill his friend for real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, it's been a while since I post a new chapter, and I'm sorry for the delay, but I'm officially done with my exams, so hopefully I can return to uploading a new chapter every week.
> 
> What do you guys think about the last part? I was aiming for a dark undertone where Zoro is starting to question his own sanity. Did that come across well? Let me know what you guys thinK~!
> 
> Thanks for reading~!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Things don’t get any better for Zoro. He thought that they’re bad enough what’s with the nightmares haunting him in his sleeping and waking moment, but then they get worse when Sanji notices that something is bothering Zoro. Sanji, being the smartass he is, quickly makes the connection that whatever it is that’s bothering Zoro has something to do with him, and even though he doesn’t really know what it was that he did wrong, he tries to fix it anyway.

Sanji does that by treating him nicer; cooking extravagant lunches, easing off on the teasing, telling him to relax while he handles all the shits Marco dumps on them. He tries, subtly, to get Zoro to talk to him about his problem, telling him that they’re friends and that Sanji won’t judge him for whatever it is that’s bothering him. The more he does it, the more Zoro wants to scream at the idiot for taking the blame on himself when this is all nothing but Zoro’s fault, Zoro’s problem, but he can’t really tell Sanji that because, how is he supposed to tell Sanji that he’s acting all weird around him because Zoro constantly dreams of killing the blonde idiot almost every damned night? How is he supposed to tell Sanji that he might be slowly losing his mind all because of Sanji himself?

The whole situation only makes him feel shittier than he’s already feeling, and knowing that he needs to get this out of his chest, Zoro turns to the only person who he thinks can help him.

Nami doesn’t really looked pleased when Zoro shows up at her lofty apartment that evening, but upon seeing the solemn look on his face, she knows that something serious is up. Thankfully, no one else is there in her apartment, and so Nami pours them two glasses of red wine, and they both sit facing each other in her living room.

They share a comfortable silence as Zoro gathers his thoughts, and finally, after several minutes, he opens his mouth and tells her everything that’s bothering him. It feels nostalgic, to talk to her about his problems like this. He used to do it back then when Kuina just passed away; it was hard, but he learned that he needs to let things out of his chest instead of keeping it all in, and even though talking about his feelings still makes him feel a little bit squeamish, he knows that mulling about it in his head won’t do him any more good.

Nami listens carefully, the look on her face calm and composed, and after he finished telling her everything, Nami slowly puts down her wine glass and softly whispers, “Does Sanji know?”

Zoro shakes his head, “No. He doesn’t. The idiot thought he did something wrong.”

Nami studies him for a moment, and though Zoro’s natural inclination is to look away after baring to her all his inner feelings, he holds her gaze, trying to convey to her that he’s ready for whatever honest words she has for him. However, no amount of mental preparation can actually lessen the blow of her next words.

“You love him, don’t you?”

And for a moment, Zoro thinks he must have misheard her, because how can she draws such ridiculous conclusion when the facts shouldn’t even hint at that anyway?

“Excuse me?”

She looks at him, gaze firmer this time, “You love him, you’re fearing for his safety.”

Zoro feels anger bubbling up in his chest, and he doesn’t know why. “Woman, I know you’re crazy, but not batshit crazy,” he hisses at her, unkindly too.

Nami doesn’t look fazed by his words, “But isn’t that what this is all about?” she sound so painfully calm that Zoro, for a moment, thinks that he might be the one being stubbornly blind to the truth. “You like him, you told me as much, and you having those nightmares…” she looks away, seemingly struggling to find the right words to make him understand. She doesn’t say anything else for a moment, and just when Zoro thinks that Nami isn’t going to help him at all, she continues, “It’s not just me, you know… I mean, I’m sure Luffy even notices it.”

Zoro quirks an eyebrow at that, “Notice what?” he asks, impatiently.

Nami looks at him again, this time, the look on her eyes tender, “That you love him.”

Zoro clenches his fists, because this just sound so fucking ridiculous that he’s starting to think that Nami’s just messing with him. The only thing holding him back is the knowledge that Nami is not the kind of friend who would do something like that when Zoro comes to her with a serious problem.

“After Kuina passed away, we all know that you’re struggling,” Nami explains, “And even though you got better with time, it still doesn’t change the fact that you look lonely sometimes. And then… And then Sanji comes along, starts to hang out with us, and I notice that you… You look less lonely with him around.”

Zoro won’t deny that, it’s true that things may have change a little with Sanji around. Back before he came, Zoro didn’t really have anyone to talk to; all his friends are good people, but they didn’t really have much in common, and Zoro was often left to silently listen to their discussions as he sipped his beer. Sanji changes that because the bastard is a stunning conversationalist, and even though they don’t often get into deep, meaningful conversations, he knows the right words to say to get Zoro riled up and bickering.

Still, that doesn’t mean that Zoro sees him as anything more than a good friend.

Upon seeing the skeptical look on Zoro’s face, Nami continues, “And it’s not just that… We all notice the way you look at him when you think no one else is looking, you know… We all saw the way you look at him.” Zoro involuntarily tense at that, he knows that he isn’t going to like what Nami’s going to say, but he wants to hear it all the same. “You look at him the way you looked at Kuina… You look at him as if you’re glad that he’s yours.”

For the longest moment, Zoro doesn’t say anything. He looks out of the window of her apartment, down at the city below, alighted with streetlights and lamps, the din of the cars playing like a pleasant background noise. The silence may look painful, but Zoro’s really just letting the words sink in. His initial reaction is anger, of course he’s angry, because Nami’s implying so many wrong things, so many things that shouldn’t have happened. Zoro’s not supposed to see Sanji as more than just a friend, Zoro isn’t supposed to look at Sanji that way, Zoro isn’t supposed to replace Kuina at all.

And he’s just so fucking angry, he’s mere inches from lashing out at Nami, at everything around him, but doesn’t do that, because there’s a small part of his head that’s trying to push forward all the memories he has of Sanji, and that small part of his is persistent. Zoro tries to push it down for a moment, yells at that part of him for being so stupid, for trying to replace Kuina. But that part is persistent, and the more Zoro pushes it down, the more it pushes back, until Zoro relents, and is almost brought to tears at the memories he shares with the stupid android.

He remembers the way they bicker like kids, and the food Sanji cooks for him. He remembers the deep conversation they share during long stake-out nights, and the ridiculous ones they have during short car rides. He remembers that night when Sanji tucks Yuu to sleep, how his heart clenches at that sight because he wants Sanji to be a part of his life, but he knows he can’t because… because…

“He’s not mine…” He can’t stop his voice from breaking, because now he knows, now he understands, that all those sleepless nights, all those nightmares, all of them stems from his fears; his fear of losing Sanji, his fear of knowing that it’s inevitable. It also stems from his helplessness to change a damn thing, because Sanji is a combat android who belongs to the government, the bastards who sees him as nothing more than a mere property, a fancy toy, and there’s nothing he can do to stop them from taking Sanji away from him. Not a goddamn fucking thing.

 He might have cried that night, or he might not have.

Only Nami knows.

XXX

The next morning when Zoro has to see the idiot again, Zoro doesn’t really know how to act. He finds it heavy in his heart to pretend nothing has happened, but pushing Sanji away isn’t an option either. The more he tries to maintain his distance, the more Sanji is determined to bridge that distance, and that’s perhaps another reason why Zoro likes him so much. He’s so fucking relentless and stubborn, undeterred by setbacks and so fucking determined to get things right that it’s just so fucking endearing.

“You look shitty,” Sanji says the moment he sees him, “Are you alright?” There’s a hint of concern in his voice, and even though Zoro should have gotten used to him asking that question, he finds his heart clenching again.

“I’m alright,” he’s not really fooling anyone.

Sanji looks as if he’s about to call him on his bullshit, but it seems as if Zoro’s reluctance to talk about his problems the last few weeks has taught him that it’s futile to pry. So, he says instead, “If you say so…” he then looks away and begins talking about the case they’ve been working on for the past few days.

It’s mid-way through their discussion that Zoro starts to notice that Sanji is acting strangely. He looks, in every sense of the word, nervous. He keeps glancing up at Zoro, worry clear in his eyes, and when Zoro looks up to meet his gaze, he quickly looks away. He talks animatedly and fast, as if he wants to wrap things up as quickly as possible and scram. There’s a niggling sensation on the back of his head, and for a horrifying moment, Zoro thinks that Sanji has somehow found out.

Sanji is an advanced android who specializes in spying, Zoro has learned about his capabilities in the time they have worked together. It’s not impossible for Sanji to listen to his conversation with Nami last night by hacking into some of Nami’s home systems. If Sanji knows, if Sanji heard everything, then why is he not bringing it up as soon as Zoro walks into the room? Is it because he, just like Zoro, doesn’t know how to act? Doesn’t know how to deal with the revelation? Does he feel sorry for Zoro? Does he think Zoro is a besotted idiot?

Zoro can’t tell for sure, and he’s really not masochistic enough to ask. If Sanji doesn’t want to talk about it, doesn’t want to bring to attention the elephant in the room, then Zoro’s not going to start either. Some things are better left unspoken.

By the time evening rolls around, they’ve wrapped up their work for the day, and Sanji promptly tells him that he has something else to take care of before he goes off on his own. Shortly after Sanji left, Ace finds him.

“You look tired,” Ace comments helpfully.

“I feel a bit tired,” Zoro admits, “I think I’m gonna go straight home to sleep.” he then decides to ask Ace, “Where have you been though? It feels like months since I last saw you.”

Ace smiles at that, a hint of melancholy in his eyes. “I’ve been… Doing some investigation for Marco.” He looks away for a moment, chews on his lips, as if hesitating, “It’s… A tough one.”

“What’s it about?”

Ace waves his hand dismissively, “Confidential stuffs. I haven’t really gotten all the facts straight, might take another week or so.” And for a moment, concern flash through his eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it came, and Zoro wonders if he was just imagining it. “What about you, what have you been up to?”

Zoro tells him about the not-so-confidential cases he has been working on with Sanji for the past couple of week and that gets the conversation between them going for a good half an hour, before Zoro decides that he’s had enough socializing for a day and wants to get home quickly to sleep, and maybe torture himself a bit with his thoughts.

XXX

Zoro isn’t expecting to find his usually-empty apartment occupied.

And he certainly isn’t expecting his friends to throw him a god-be-damned birthday party because apparently, today is his birthday, a fact that somehow has gone over his head. Well, it’s not as if he thinks that birthdays are worth celebrating anyway; he doesn’t really like making a big deal out of it. His friends know this, and they respect that by keeping things relatively simple; just a few words of congratulations and maybe a present or two. When Kuina was still around, she would cook his favorites and bought cake, and that’s the most celebrating Zoro has ever done.

Nobody ever threw him a party; not until today.

And it’s not hard to figure out who’s idea it was.

“Given the time window, it’s a bit tricky to pull off,” Sanji says later as they enjoy the meal that he has cooked for the occasion, “But I’m awesome like that,” he then grins proudly, before pouring Nami a glass of wine.

Zoro, with Yuu on his laps, doesn’t really know what to say. He smiles, tries to enjoy the party, which isn’t really that hard given how rowdy Yuu and everyone else are. But during dinner, he catches Nami and Robin looking at him with a sad look on their faces, akin to pity, but he knows that they don’t pity. They’re his friends, his confidantes, they know about the internal conflicts going through his head, and they want to make sure that he knows that he can talk to them any time.

Zoro doesn’t know if anymore talking is going to help though, not when he no longer has any doubt that he’s so hopelessly gone for Sanji.

It’s about midnight when the party is finally over. Everyone has gone home to turn in for the day, and Yuu is sleeping peacefully in her own room. Sanji is helping Zoro clean up, talking about how he has been planning about the whole thing for a couple of days. Zoro doesn’t really know what to say, gratitude is on the tip of his tongue, but he’s afraid that if he starts talking, then everything is going to tumble out.

But he can’t really left it unsaid either, and so after they finished putting away the dishes, Zoro turns to him and says, “Thanks, Sanji, for everything.” He tries his best to maintain eye contact, tries his best to keep the emotions out of his voice, tries his best not to look as if he’s so fucking desperate to hold Sanji and never let go.

Sanji smiles at him, so tender and gentle, making Zoro’s heart gives a painful squeeze. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

For a moment, the stupid android doesn’t say anything, but then finally, he says, “I could say the same thing too, you know.”

Zoro smirks as he folds his arms and lean against the counter, “Really? What for?”

Sanji smirks as well, “To be honest, I’m not sure either. You’re slow and annoying, and you don’t actually help me at work either. Seriously, I’m always better off dealing with those cases on my own.”

Zoro snorts, but it’s not that he can deny it either. Sanji is efficient like that, so Zoro never really has to help out much. “I drive you around.”

Sanji rolls his eyes, “I would count it for something, but then you get us lost all of the damned time. It’s fucking unbelievable how hopeless you are with directions.”

“You know, that joke is not funny anymore. It’s getting so fucking old.”

“I still think it is,” Sanji shrugs, “So deal with it.”

Zoro snorts again, Dartbrow.”

“Marimo.”

“Love-struck fool.”

“Seaweed brain.”

And there’s just so much fucking affection in Sanji’s voice that Zoro’s heart warms up pleasantly. He’s about to retort with another insult, but then the cold truth breaks free from the deepest depth of his mind, and it washes all the warmth feelings down almost immediately, and Zoro is left feeling hopeless and suffocated all of a sudden.

Sanji notices the abrupt change, and asks, “Hey, you alright?”

Zoro swallows, wills his voice not to break as he replies, “Yeah. I just…” he stops himself before he can get another word out, because he knows that he’s treading dangerously close to pouring out his heart to Sanji right there and then.

Sanji patiently waits, but Zoro remains stubbornly silent.

The silence feels so fucking heavy, and it’s getting fucking heavier with every goddamn passing second. Zoro never prays, he’s not one for praying, but at that moment, he finds himself begging for some sort of divine intervention, because this is just so fucking dangerous and he knows he’s fucking falling and he just can’t fucking stop himself and –

And he reaches out to pull Sanji into his arms.

Zoro crushes him against his chest, buries his nose into his neck, desperately trying to fit Sanji into the gaping hole into his chest. He knows that he has fallen, that there’s no turning back now, no more pretending that he’s fine. He’ll regret being so brash later, he’ll deal with all that later; right now, he doesn’t give a flying fuck, because Sanji is in his arms, and it just feels so fucking right, as if Sanji belongs there all along. Sanji doesn’t say anything, for a moment he’s frozen, as if unsure of what to do. But Sanji doesn’t say anything, doesn’t ask, and doesn’t try to push him away. Instead, he lets Zoro holds him, returns his embrace, and listens as Zoro asks him to stay.

The only thing Sanji can tell him is, “I want to stay too.”

But that’s nothing that Zoro doesn’t know already.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, I apologize for the delay. I don't know if I'm pacing the story too fast in this chapter, so I held back on the update. I don't want to pile up too much angst in one chapter, but then that means I'll have to shorten the chapter. I was pretty conflicted, but I hope I made the right choice.
> 
> Thank you for reading~! Lemme know what you think!

Chapter 12

Sanji watches as Zoro sleeps on the sofa. In the darkness of the room, he can barely make out the sleeping figure of the bulkier man, but he can tell that Zoro is troubled, even in his sleep. He looks out of the window at the bright moon shining on the sky and begins to wonder.

Sanji isn’t under any illusion that he can stay with these people for a long time. The day would come when he’ll have to leave them all behind forever, and though the thought pains him, it’s inevitable, and he’s somewhat prepared for it. He’s a combat android, it’s just the way things are and were meant to be.

Still, Zoro’s honest display of emotion earlier sends him tumbling into a heap of doubt once again. Sanji always thought that if he were to leave, no one would actually miss him much. He hasn’t been around for long to guarantee that kind of affection from the others. Sanji thought that he would be the only one who would feel upset, but apparently, he was wrong.

Zoro would be upset if he leaves, Zoro wants him to stay. It occurs to Sanji several times that Zoro might be saddened by his absence, but he always thought that Zoro would be calm about it. Zoro would probably blink in surprise, then nod and tell Sanji that he’ll miss him. Sanji never thought that the idea of him leaving would send Zoro clutching at him so desperately, voice broken with despair, bordering close to hyperventilation. He never thought that Zoro actually cares for him that much. Sure, in the course of the past few months, they have gotten close, but Sanji didn’t think that they would get this close.

And then it struck him right then that maybe, just maybe, Zoro doesn’t think of him as a friend only, but as someone more.

It’s just so unfair that it’s all Sanji can do to not hunt down Law at that very moment.

Because, right at that very moment, Sanji realizes that he’s particularly fond of Zoro too, and that he wants to stay by Zoro’s side, more than anything else in the world. He wants to stay, gods, he want to stay with Zoro, and everyone else too.

But he can't stay, and there's nothing he can do to change that. Nothing.

_"I want you to stay."_

Standing there in the darkness of the room, a single tear silently rolls down his cheek.

XXX

Sanji prepares breakfast for Yuu and Zoro the next morning. Even though Zoro’s kitchen is barren, he can still whip up a decent batch of pancake, and even a bento box for Yuu to bring to kindergarten. As Sanji watches them enjoying to meals he cooked with a pleasant buzz in his processors, it occurs to him that all of this – Zoro, Yuu, all his friends, this very domestic life – could have been his, if only…

“Thanks for the meal San-chan~!” Yuu enthusiastically says, her eyes bright with happiness and vigor. “Your cooking is delicious! Even better than papa’s!”

“Of course it is, your papa can’t even boil water even if his life depends on it,” Sanji returns with a tender smile.

At that remark, Zoro perks up, but as soon as he lays his eyes upon Sanji’s face, he freezes, as if the words got stuck in his throat all of a sudden. Pain, longing, sadness, they all flash across his eyes for a second, before he quickly regains himself and settles for shrugging silently, his face now more solemn than before.

The smile falls from Sanji’s face as well, because he can more or less guess what Zoro is thinking right now. Still, he puts on a cheerful façade as he tells Yuu to go brush her teeth and get changed so Zoro can take her to kindergarten. Yuu complies immediately, dashing off with all the energy in the world, leaving Sanji and Zoro to share a cold silence.

Sanji decides to go right ahead and speak his mind, “Do you remember what I said to you last night…?”

Zoro looks at him, his face carefully neutral.

He remains silent, so Sanji continues, “I said… Thank you. I told you that I’m grateful, for all that you’ve done to me.” He pauses, let the words sink, before he explains, “Ever since my first activation day, my memory have been regularly wiped. I’ve been through a lot of tests, and after each one, my memory has to be wiped to ensure that the data they obtain is free from any distortions. Still, the memories that leave a deep impression to me can’t really be wiped. It’s permanently stored in a place they can’t locate. Nobody can understand why I did it or how, I don’t either. But I’m glad for it, because that means I’ll never forget the important people I’ve met.”

Zoro remains silent, but Sanji can see the way his jaw tightens.

“The memories I have with you and everyone else... It’ll definitely be stored there. And for once, it doesn’t involves me strangling someone innocent with my bare hands.” He chuckles, try to pass it off as a joke, but he sounds pained, even to his own ears. “So, for that… For the good memories that I’ll definitely keep even after they wipe me… For everything, thank you.”

It feels like saying goodbye to Zoro for good. It’s not his intention. But he can’t stop himself. At the very least, Zoro should know that he’ll never forget him.

Zoro stands up abruptly, despair replaced by anger. He’s in denial, Sanji can tell. “Don’t say it like that,” he hisses. “Don’t say it as if you’re going to leave.”

Sanji calmly looks at him, “But I am. And you know that too.”

Silence, as heavy as lead, falls upon them. Zoro’s eyes burn through him, but Sanji meets his gaze as calmly as he could. Sanji can’t help to wonder why Zoro can’t just accept it. Why can’t he see that there’s nothing either of them can do about the situation? Why can’t he see that Sanji leaving is just inevitable? Why?

The silence is only broken by Yuu, who comes out of her room fully dressed and ready to go, oblivious to the tension between them.

No more words are exchanged between them, even as Zoro takes Yuu’s hand and walks out of the door.

Sanji wonders if this moment too shall be seared into his memory.

XXX

The warning gets more urgent in his head as the days go on. Sanji keeps on ignoring it, trying to hold out as long as he could, even if he knows that he’s putting himself in great danger. He doesn’t want to leave, not just yet, and so he persists, tries to pretend that nothing is wrong, tries to hide the way his hands are getting clumsy, or the blotches of strange symbols appearing on the case reports he generates.

His deterioration doesn’t miss Zoro’s attention, but he too pretends that nothing is wrong. Tries to pass Sanji’s errors as a joke, tries to act as if he doesn’t notice the way Sanji’s hands trembles, or the way Sanji is getting slower in thinking up of ways to deal with a case. It pains him though, Sanji can tell. He sees the pain flashing across Zoro’s eyes when he sees Sanji struggles with something, the fear and the guilt, all mixed into one.

Sanji wants to tell him that it’s nothing he should be guilty of, but he’s afraid that he’ll only dig the wound deeper, so he chooses to remain silent. And he continues to wonder just how much longer he can keep this up before he breaks, before his system fails him, before the inevitable happens.

The tea cup slips from between his fingers and crashes onto the floor into pieces. The first thing Sanji does is to look around, making sure no one saw that. Zoro is there with him in the kitchen, but aside from him and his green hair, no one else is there.

Just as he’s about to breathe easy, Nami pokes her head into the kitchen, “What was that?” she asks.

“My hand slipped,” Zoro tells her quickly, covering up for Sanji. “I’ll clean that up.”

Nami quirks an eyebrow at that, “Be careful, okay?” and without another word, she returns to the living room.

Sanji lets out the breath that he has been holding. Quickly, he gets down to pick up the pieces. Zoro too helps him out. They fall into a grim silence as they work, neither of them willing to talk about the elephant in the room.

Unexpectedly though, Zoro breaks the silence, “You know… Franky might be able to help…” he says, voice unsure, but slightly hopeful.

Sanji knows he will hate himself for dashing that hope. “I’ll get him into trouble with the government. They’ll strip him down of all his wealth,” Sanji replies.

Zoro’s jaws tightened, and he averts his gaze.

After the pieces are thrown away, Zoro stays in the kitchen to watch him work. He looks at Sanji as if he’s afraid that Sanji will disappear the moment he takes his eyes off him. And though it bothers him, Sanji doesn’t say anything about it, doesn’t tell him to go away and have fun with the others, because with the way his system is going haywire, he thinks he might just shut down at any moment.

And Sanji, too, is afraid.

XXX

The weather is warm, nice, and pleasant. Best of all, it’s weekend, so Luffy decides to lead everyone for a picnic in the local park. From under the shade of a tree, Sanji watches as Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp wrestles by the pond, listens as Brook plays his violin, and as Franky enthusiastically tells Robin about his latest project. He closes his eyes and breaths in deeply, savoring the moment, hoping this one too will forever stays with him.

“How are you feeling?”

Sanji opens his eyes, and sees Zoro approaching him with Yuu in his arms.

“I’m fine,” Sanji replies as he stands up and dusts off his pants. These days, he keeps on lying to Zoro, keeps lying even though he knows that Zoro can see through all his lies. Not that being honest is going to do anyone any good at all.

Zoro stares at him, his gaze scrutinizing, but as usual, he doesn’t call out on his bullshit.

“San-chan,” Yuu says as she holds out the bottle of water that she has been holding in her tiny hands, “Here.”

Sanji smiles at her as he accepts the bottle from her hand, “Thank you, Yuu-chan.”

Yuu tilts her head, studies him with all the intensity a five-year-old can muster. Sanji merely smiles at her as he drinks the water that he has been offered, even though it really doesn’t do much to fix the bug in his system that has been causing him to lose focus, made him almost fall into the pond.

Sanji doesn’t think he can hold out for much longer.

“I think…” Sanji starts as he looks down at the bottle in his hand, “I need to go see the doctor soon,” and he looks at Zoro as he says this, tries to convey the true meaning behind his words.

Zoro looks at him, the pain flashes across his eyes again. Sanji doesn’t like seeing him so hurt and confused, it’s the reason why he doesn’t want to leave, but it’s also the reason why he has to leave. Judging by his silence, Zoro seems to be aware of this too.

“Come back to us,” Zoro finally says after a lengthy pause, his voice barely concealing his emotions, “Promise me you’ll come back to us.”

Sanji doesn’t want to make false promises, doesn’t want to lie to Zoro, and Yuu, about this.

‘I’ll try my best’, is what he knows he should say.

‘I will’, is what comes out instead. 


End file.
